Alagoinhas has 13 spiritist groups. It is the home town of Fábio Klester Rodrigues Oliveira (photo), History lecturer and a spiritist since 1992. He belongs to the NEPOL – Núcle Espírita Ponto de Luz – which he directs in the company of his wife, Cacilda. The group is promoting an interesting experience: using the city´s shopping centre to publicise the spiritist message.  O Consolador: Tell us about Alagoinhas first, its economy, population.  The city is on the northeast of the state of Bahia, 108km from Salvador and not far from the coast. The economy is based on commerce, services, industry, agriculture

and stockbreeding. It has a population of 138 thousand people.

O Consolador: What are the main activities in the city to make the spiritist message known? 

The main event we have is the Spiritist Week, which takes place every year in November. 

O Consolador: Your group, NEPOL, has already begun its activities? 

Informally, yes. NEPOL started as a group for the Systematic Study of the Spiritist Doctrine [SSSD or ESDE, in the Portuguese anacronym] in a small room of our house, in 2008. It began with a group of seven people, who met weekly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays to study The Spirits´ Book, The Mediums´ Book and The Gospel According to Spiritism. But the groups – the SSSD – has been suspended. 

O Consolador: Why? 

We are organising the infrastructure, so we can be able to assist a greater number of people in the area. We are preparing three rooms, which are nearly ready, and will host the mediums´ work, meditation with fluid therapy and the Systematic Study group and other studies of the Doctrine. We will also have a book shop, a small library for consultation and lending of books and a place for the community´s assistance and spiritual orientation. Everything should be finished by the end of the year. 

O Consolador: How did you come about the idea of taking spritist books to the local shopping centre? 

The idea came from the need of raising funds for our group, NEPOL. We had the help of a friendly family in town, the Mendes, who donated the building material. We also made a personal loan at the bank, but we were still out of pocket. The administrator of the Laguna Shopping and sister of the owners, senhora Célia, then generously provided an area for us to sell books and magazines. The problem then is that we didn´t have neither the books nor the magazines. 

O Consolador: And how did you get them? 

My wife, Cacilda, had the idea of getting in touch with the Lachatre publishing house. A friend of ours who worked in sales there mentioned an ongoing promotion: if we bought more than 200 reais in books (equivalent to US$ 110 or £ 70) we would get 500 magazines for free. We then gave a big push and bought 400 reais in books and were given 1,500 magazines – 500 of them as an extra donation by the publishing house. And in April this year we were able to begin selling the books at magazines and helping publicize the Doctrine at the shopping centre. 

O Consolador: And how is your bookshop doing? 

It´s doing really well. There are only two spiritist centres in the city with a book shop, which only opens in the evening or in certain times when the group is meeting. There are also a few temporary selling points around the city, but not permanent ones. Our spiritist bookshop is at the shopping centre and opens normal hours. It gives people another choice. And it serves not only the people of Alagoinhas, but also those who come from nearby towns and visit the shopping centre. 

O Consolador: Do you sell books only from one particular publishing house? Are the basic works of the Doctrine available too? 

With the profit from the sales, we could not only restart the work at our building – the new rooms – but also buy more books, including the basic works of Kardec and books from other publishing houses, which we couldn´t offer in the beginning.  We also receive a donation of 90 books by a friend of hours, senhor Egídio. And we´re about to receive another book donation from São Paulo, thanks to the generosity of other spiritist friends. 

O Consolador: Do you have in Alagoinhas a book fair or radio programmes to help propagating the Doctrine? 

Unfortunately we don´t have any of that here in Alagoinhas. It´s not a small town, we´re not far from the state capital – Salvador – and we have a history in Spiritism, but there´s not even a small newspaper in the city to help spread the message of the Doctrine. We had in Alagoinhas a great medium Saturnino Favila, who in 1914 cured Manoel Philomeno de Miranda from a serious illness caused by obsession by a disincarnated spirit. The patient was converted to Spiritism. We also had Mãe Helena (1) (Mother Helena) in Alagoinhas, a brilliant medium who did a wonderful social work in the city. And yet, not even a small paper… 

O Consolador: Do the spiritist centres work together in Alagoinhas? 

That´s one of our big problems, the lack of union, of a concerted action between the various spiritist groups. The Spiritist Federation of Bahia has been trying to push for more integration. They send delegations to visit the region every year from March to May, to try to encourage union among the various groups, but that hasn´t been enough.  Another problem is the lack of teams qualified to treat to the most urgent and serious cases of obsession from disincarnated spirits. Many seek treatment and leave the spiritist centres without the proper treatment. They end up going to the capital, Salvador, or even looking for help in other religious groups. Also, I´d like to highlight the chronic problem faced by the spiritist groups in the region – the lack of money and the lack of human resources to carry on providing assistance to the local population. 

O Consolador: What is the influence from nearby cities and towns in the spiritist movement of Alagoinhas? 

There´s certainly an influence from Salvador, as some of the spiritist groups here look up to spiritist centres in the capital. They have them as reference, they go to the capital to invite people to give lectures and organise courses. I must say Alagoinhas really lacks good spiritist public speakers. The local groups really don´t focus too much on forming new lectures and public speakers. 

O Consolador: What is the feeling in the city towards Spiritism? 

There´s still much ignorance and prejudice. Many mix up Spiritism with other religions that also work with mediums and believe in reincarnation – namely, Candomblé and Umbanda, the Afro-Brazilian cults. They deserve our respect, but are substantially different from Spiritism. And yet, so many people come to our bookshop at the shopping centre, including people of other religious faiths, to ask for spiritual assistance.  

O Consolador: What else would you like to add? 

I´d like to talk about the experience of publicizing the spiritist message in a shopping centre. Not it works as a support to the job we do at our spiritist centre, but you also make new friends, you recommend books, you tell and hear stories, you laugh, your emotions are touched, sometimes you get annoyed, especially when people pass by and shout that we´re dealing with the devil and come and try to destroy our magazines. There´s a bit of everything, but most of all you are encouraged by the constant presence of our spiritual friends next to our selling kiosk who say: “Carry on! You´re not alone! Continue to fight the fight for good over evil!” 

O Consolador: What are your final words? 

When we fell despondent about the obstacles in our task of spreading the message of Spiritism, especially in the smaller cities and towns of Brazil, may we take the fight of St Paul as our example. In his drive to take the Gospel of Jesus to the world in his several journeys, he suffered all sorts of contempt and aggression, but never gave up. We must remember that we have a much easier task now than he did, as we can use the media and in particular the spiritist literature. So, let´s just take on the plough and look forward, not backwards, as there´s so much yet to be done. 

(1) The story of the medium Mãe Helena, as she was known, can be found in the book As Mulheres Mediums (Women Mediums) by Carlos Bernardo Loureiro, published by FED in 1996. 

Contact with our interviewee through the email fabioklester@hotmail.com