Showing posts with label Metaphysical Odyssey Into the Mexican Revolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Metaphysical Odyssey Into the Mexican Revolution. Show all posts
Monday, March 02, 2020
Daniel Chacón's "Words on a Wire" Podcast Interview with Yours Truly About Francisco I. Madero's Secret Book
>> READ THIS POST ON THE NEW PLATFORM WWW.MADAM-MAYO.COM
Monday, February 03, 2020
From the Archives: Una Ventana al Mundo Invisible (A Window onto the Invisible World): Master Amajur and the Smoking Signatures
>> READ THIS POST ON THE NEW PLATFORM AT WWW.MADAM-MAYO.COM
Monday, January 16, 2017
Biographers International Interview: A Strange Spark of the Mexican Revolution
BIOGRAPHERS INTERNATIONAL: What is your current project and at what stage is it?
C.M. MAYO: I'm at work on World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas, not a biography properly so-called, but the narrative weaves in some history and so encompasses a number of biographical vignettes from Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, the conquistador who got lost, to some of the contemporary artists working in Marfa. Stage: still banging out the first complete draft.
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| [[ FRANCISCO I. MADERO ]] |
Madero was the leader of Mexico’s 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico from 1911-1913, so the fact that he was a Spiritist medium and, albeit under a pseudonym, author of a book of Spiritism published in—yes—1911, is a dramatic twist in the paradigm of how we understand the spark of the Mexican Revolution.
My book, which includes my translation of Madero’s book, was published in 2014, so I am well into the promotion stage. (I’m delighted to report that Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution won the National Indie Excellence Award for History, and to date, I've given talks about it at Mexico City’s Centro de Estudios de la Historia de México, Rice University, Stanford University, UCSD’s Center for US-Mexico Studies, and the University of Texas El Paso, among other venues.)
> Listen to and/or read some of my talks about this book here.
BI: What person would you most like to write about?
C.M. MAYO: At the moment, because I'm writing about Far West Texas, pioneer petroleum geologist Wallace E. Pratt. I am especially intrigued that he would choose to live for many years in a such an isolated place as McKittrick Canyon, deep in the Guadalupe Mountains. It is, in large part, thanks to Pratt's visionary gift that we now have the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. I am very honored to say that I will be one of the artists-in-residence in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park this spring, so I will have the chance to retrace his steps and visit his house.
BI: Who is your favorite biographer or what is your favorite biography?
C.M. MAYO: As far as my Far West Texas reading goes, I both admired and especially relished the biography of the 20th century bard of Texas, J. Frank Dobie: A Liberated Mind, by Stephen L. Davis. Many of the popular ideas we take for granted about Texas and Texans have their roots in Dobie's works.
My two all-time favorite biographies are Nancy Marie Brown’s The Far-Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman and Paula Kamen’s Finding Iris Chang: Friendship, Ambition, and the Loss of an Extraordinary Mind.
My two all-time favorite biographies are Nancy Marie Brown’s The Far-Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman and Paula Kamen’s Finding Iris Chang: Friendship, Ambition, and the Loss of an Extraordinary Mind.
BI: What have been your most satisfying moments as a biographer?
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| [[ Visit this book's webpage ]] |
BI: One research/marketing/attitudinal tip to share?
C.M. MAYO: As a biographer I have only published the one title, however, I have published several other works of fiction and nonfiction, so I do have more than a little experience about this perennially mystifying and consternating topic.
My short answer is three words: sports psychology helps.
My long answer is: take consistent resilient actions, answer the email that deserves an answer, write an op-ed if you can, and be generous (what goes around comes around, albeit willynilly). The true reward is in the writing itself. It is a wondrous privilege to be able to write at all. Don't ignore the "publishing business," but don't take it too seriously, either. Books can have deeply strange destinies. After all, they are magical time travelers.
My short answer is three words: sports psychology helps.
My long answer is: take consistent resilient actions, answer the email that deserves an answer, write an op-ed if you can, and be generous (what goes around comes around, albeit willynilly). The true reward is in the writing itself. It is a wondrous privilege to be able to write at all. Don't ignore the "publishing business," but don't take it too seriously, either. Books can have deeply strange destinies. After all, they are magical time travelers.
BI: What genre, besides biography, do you read for pleasure and who are some of your favorite writers?
C.M. MAYO: I mainly read history, literary essay, and literary fiction. Just this year I've come across several historians who are my new favorites: Patricia Nelson Limerick (The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West); Jill Lepore (The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origin of American Identity); and Rebecca Solnit (River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West).
For literary essay I remain in awe of V.S. Naipaul, in particular, his memoir published in 1989, A Turn in the South. This year I especially admired Shelley Armitage's Walking the Llano: A Texas Memoir of Place and, last year, one of my favorite writers writing on Mexico, Sam Quinones, brought out Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic— a grenade of a book, a must read for anyone and everyone living anywhere in North America.
Fiction: Agustín Cadena, Truman Capote, Willa Cather, Anton Chekhov, Giuseppe di Lampedusa, Ann Patchett, Leo Tolstoy, Edith Wharton.
> Your comments are always welcome. Write to me here.
Wednesday, July 06, 2016
Shattered Reality! Podcast: Madero, Spiritism, and the Mexican Revolution
>> Listen in here <<
(Transcript to be posted shortly)
For those looking for a more scholarly discussion, on the book's webpage you can find my lectures about Madero, Spiritism, and the Mexican Revolution for the UCSD Center for US-Mexican Studies (podcast); University of Texas El Paso (transcript); and The American Literary Translators Association Conference (transcript), among others, plus an ample and frequently updated page of Resources for Researchers.
In scholarly venues, with noted exceptions, I usually find myself before an audience flummoxed to horror by the idea of Mexico's revolutionary hero as a Spiritist medium, so it was a fun treat to have this freewheeling podcast conversation with Kate Valentine, an expert on UFOs, and Fahrusha, a well-known professional psychic. They were not in the least kerfuffled by, for example, discussions of channeling the dead, table tipping, and apparitions-- to mention only a few of Francisco I. Madero's esoteric enthusiasms.
(I am often asked if Francisco I. Madero's Spiritism had anything to do with La Santa Muerte. The answer is a resounding no.)
>> Again, listen to my Shattered Reality podcast interview here.
Some of my other interviews on Madero, Spiritism, and the Mexican Revolution include:
> Jeffrey Mishlove's television show New Thinking Allowed
> Greg Kaminsky's podcast Occult of Personality
> Stephan Woodman's The Mexican Labyrinth
> University of Chicago Social Sciences Division newsletter
> All Q & A here.
Your comments are always welcome.
I invite you to subscribe to my free podcast-packed newsletter.
No spam. Nor ham.
Newsletter goes out every other month-ish.
Wednesday, March 09, 2016
More Madero: Interviews by Jeffrey Mishlove and a Review by Michael Tymn
It's sometimes curious the way books wend their way to their readers. When I started out writing under the name C.M. Mayo more than (ayy) two decades ago, like most young writers, I hyper-focussed on short-term goals such as getting an agent, getting published, winning prizes, and selling oh-so-many copies. I still relish getting published, winning prizes, and selling copies, when that happens to happen, but my view of the value and meaning of this peculiar endeavor we call "writing books" has since expanded into more esoteric realms, and in more ways than one.
As those of you who have been following this blog well know, back in 2014 I brought out Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual, which includes my translation of Manual espírita, by "Bhima," that is, the leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico from 1911-1913. In other words, I wrote a book about and translated a book of transcendental importance to the 1910 Revolution itself, among other things, to which, for more than a century, only a handful of specialists in Mexican history had paid more than a whit of attention. (And why not? Two words: cognitive dissonance.)
The thing is, a book is both a commodity, as anyone who works with a major New York publishing house or, say, a rare books dealer, can aver, and a mystical package, that is, a complex amalgam of thought-forms that, so encapsulated, code on paper, can travel forward across even vast realms of time and space to unleash its contents into the imaginal realm of a human mind. When that happens to happen.
Right now, as I am working on a book about Far West Texas, I have on my desk a mystical package that is 474 years old. Specifically: a paperback edition of the English translation by Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz of the Relación or report of 1547 by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca to the King of Spain-- a story that is an odyssey if there ever was one.
To the news. I am very honored to announce that just this week Michael Tymn reviewed Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution on his blog over at White Crow Books.
Among many other works, Tymn is the author of Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife.
And I am also honored to announce that Jeffrey Mishlove conducted a three part interview with me about Spiritism in the Mexican Revolution for his program "New Thinking Allowed."As of this week, the first two of three segments All three segments are now on-line.
Mishlove is the author of The PK Man, a book that took him 20 years to publish, is now 15 years old, and is yet finding ever more readers. It may have gotten a slow start but I believe that Mishlove's The PK Man will stand as one of the landmark works of the 20th century. I explain in my forthcoming review of Jeffrey Kripal and Whitley Strieber's Super Natural.
As those of you who have been following this blog well know, back in 2014 I brought out Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual, which includes my translation of Manual espírita, by "Bhima," that is, the leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico from 1911-1913. In other words, I wrote a book about and translated a book of transcendental importance to the 1910 Revolution itself, among other things, to which, for more than a century, only a handful of specialists in Mexican history had paid more than a whit of attention. (And why not? Two words: cognitive dissonance.)
The thing is, a book is both a commodity, as anyone who works with a major New York publishing house or, say, a rare books dealer, can aver, and a mystical package, that is, a complex amalgam of thought-forms that, so encapsulated, code on paper, can travel forward across even vast realms of time and space to unleash its contents into the imaginal realm of a human mind. When that happens to happen.
Right now, as I am working on a book about Far West Texas, I have on my desk a mystical package that is 474 years old. Specifically: a paperback edition of the English translation by Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz of the Relación or report of 1547 by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca to the King of Spain-- a story that is an odyssey if there ever was one.
To the news. I am very honored to announce that just this week Michael Tymn reviewed Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution on his blog over at White Crow Books. Among many other works, Tymn is the author of Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife.
And I am also honored to announce that Jeffrey Mishlove conducted a three part interview with me about Spiritism in the Mexican Revolution for his program "New Thinking Allowed."
Mishlove is the author of The PK Man, a book that took him 20 years to publish, is now 15 years old, and is yet finding ever more readers. It may have gotten a slow start but I believe that Mishlove's The PK Man will stand as one of the landmark works of the 20th century. I explain in my forthcoming review of Jeffrey Kripal and Whitley Strieber's Super Natural.
> Your comments are always welcome. Write to me here.
Monday, February 29, 2016
From The PK Man to Primates of Park Avenue: Whiplash Extremes of Human Behavior
Last week I had occasion to reread Mishlove's The PK Man, and now, as the author myself of a book about another astonishing book-- Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual, I found it even more astonishing, for I understood what courage it must have taken to not only write The PK Man, but to publish it. (Never mind, in my own case, to read it twice, cover to cover.) When it comes to this sort of material, most people, including myself back when, encounter a block of cognitive dissonance oh, say, the size of Greenland and Alaska and Antarctica combined. Multiplied by 11,999.
What prompted me to reread The PK Man was that I flew to Las Vegas to be interviewed about my book on Jeffrey Mishlove's show, New Thinking Allowed. (Stay tuned for the video links.) It was honor indeed. Of course I brought my copy of The PK Man for him to sign.
UPDATE: See "Axe of Apocalypse," my review of Strieber and Kripal's Super Natural for Literal Magazine, in which I discuss Mishlove's The PK Man at length.
UPDATE: Here are the links to the 3-part interview with me on Mishlove's "New Thinking Allowed":
UPDATE: See "Axe of Apocalypse," my review of Strieber and Kripal's Super Natural for Literal Magazine, in which I discuss Mishlove's The PK Man at length.
UPDATE: Here are the links to the 3-part interview with me on Mishlove's "New Thinking Allowed":
But whoa, after all the metaphysical talk, as I was about to get back on the plane, I really needed to do a sharp turn on this teacup ride-- I mean, read something grounding, something very focussed on the materialistic. Anthropologist Wednesday Martin's personal memoir Primates of Park Avenue was just the thing. Highly recommended.
(And if you think The PK Man was more than a little weird, I point to Wednesday Martin's Park Avenue apartment which, by her own testimony, features an entire closet devoted to her handbags, including a much-coveted "Birkin" that has a markup over cost akin to the price of a small car.)
(How was Las Vegas? Well, apart from the interview, the only thing I did was to go hiking in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. I did pass the Trump casino on the highway, which made me wonder, as I often do whilst perusing the news of the current presidential campaigns, whether I haven't slip-slided into some alternative universe.)
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Guest Blog at the New York History Blog (Just in Time for the Día de Muertos)
Strange as it may sound, a vital taproot of the Mexican Revolution lies in Upstate New York. Read all about it in my guest blog for the New York History Blog-- an excerpt from my latest book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution.> Read more excerpts
> Get Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution from amazon, paperback or Kindle
> Your comments are always welcome.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Occult of Personality: The Interview about Francisco I. Madero, Spiritism, and the Mexican Revolution
"With a focus on authenticity, accuracy, and quality, Occult of Personality peers behind the veil to provide recorded interviews with serious esoteric practitioners, scholars, and teachers from all over the world. Established in 2006, the podcast reaches several thousand listeners each month and has been noted for the quality and depth of interviews."
> Listen in to the Occult of Personality interview here.
> More about my book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution, here.
P.S. Just a few of the many fascinating interviews at Occult of Personality:
The Life and Work of Henry Steel Olcott (interview with Mitch Horowitz)
William Kiesel of Ouroboros Press
Josephine McCarthy, author of The Exorcist's Handbook
Mitch Horowitz and One Simple Idea
Eastern Thought in the Western Occult World
(My talk for a panel at the American Literary Translators Association Conference,
Milkwaukee, November 15, 2014)
Monday, August 17, 2015
Just Energy Radio Interview About Francisco Madero's Secret Book
I was honored to do a very fun interview with one of my favorite Texans, Dr. Rita Louise, on her "Just Energy" radio show, about the secret book of Francisco I. Madero. (Just to say, only Dr. Rita would ask, "But did he chop down the cherry tree?")
> Listen to the interview
My mic was a little too sensitive, alas, so if you listen in, you might want to drop the volume. Better yet:
> Read the transcript
> Visit the webpage for my book Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual.
In case you haven't been following this blog, this book-- which is my book plus my translation of Madero's book--recently won the National Indie Excellence Award for History. It's also been getting some good reviews from historians, but what is most interesting to me, and I think should be for historians, is that the, shall we say, metaphysically-inclined have been telling me that Madero's book is something very special, very advanced for its time. (Check out my interview with a modern medium about Francisco Madero as a medium. I haven't met him or ever worked with him in any way, but since Rev Steven Hermann gave the book a great review, and he just published his own book, Mediumship Mastery, I thought his take on Madero as a medium could be very interesting, and indeed it is.)
Here's the introduction to Dr. Rita Louise's show:
"Welcome to "Just Energy Radio" with your host, naturopath and medical intuitive Dr. Rita Louise.
We have learned from Einstein's theory that matter and energy are one. Physicists believe that all systems of nature have their own particular way of vibrating. From the swinging of a pendulum to the waves of the ocean to the light that brightens the sky each day, each of these oscillates at its own unique rate. The same holds true for every thought, feeling, event or word we speak: each has its own frequency or rate of vibration. What many of us don't realize is when we take everything in our universe down to its simplest form, it is all just energy.
Join Dr. Rita Louise on a journey through time and space where past, present and future collide. Today what you believe may be called into question. What we want to know is: Who made up the rules? Be brave and step outside the box. We are about to turn our world upside down and venture into the unknown. Hold on! We are departing our own beliefs and entering alternative realms. Enjoy the possibilities."
I'm fine with "entering alternative realms," and considering possibilities; otherwise, I never would have been able to write the book I did. (And on that note, I invite you to check out my podcast about the Marfa Lights, and blog post about Maestro Amajur and the Smoking Signatures.) For the extra-adventurous among you, I can recommend these "Just Energy Radio" interviews:
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
On Francisco I. Madero as Medium: An Interview with Rev. Stephen A. Hermann, Author of Mediumship Mastery
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| < FRANCISCO I. MADERO > |
>>Click here to view a one minute-long Mexican government video which gives a very basic idea of the official version of Madero's importance in Mexico.<<
Madero was a medium in the Spiritist tradition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries of France and Mexico. In Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution I write about Madero and his Spiritist Manual not as an academic historian, but as his translator and as a creative writer who has lived in and written about Mexico for many years. I presumed that most of my readers would encounter Madero's ideas about communicating with the dead extremely peculiar, even disturbing. For the most part this has been the case. To give one of several (to me, amusing) examples, one prominent Mexico expert who shall remain unnamed felt moved to inform me that, though he very much enjoyed my book, he would not be reading Spiritist Manual.
That said, I am grateful to have been invited to speak about it at the Centro de Estudios de la Historia de México CARSO, Mexico City's National Palace, Rice University, Stanford University, UCSD Center for US-Mexican Studies, and elsewhere, and to date, historians of Mexico and other scholars in these audiences have been both thoughtful and generous in their comments.
To my surprise, however, the Internet has brought my and Madero's books another, very different audience, one that encounters the Spiritist Manual as, shall we say, a vintage text out of a well-known and warmly embraced tradition.
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With the aim of providing further context for Francisco I. Madero and his Spiritist Manual, I asked Rev. Hermann if, from the perspective of a practicing medium and teacher of mediumship— and author of the just-published Mediumship Mastery: The Mechanics of Receiving Spirit Communications— he would be so kind as to answer some of my questions about Madero as a medium and about his philosophy.
I. ON MADERO AS MEDIUM
C.M. MAYO: In your book, Mediumship Mastery, you distinguish between two broad types of mediumship, mental and physical. "Automatic writing" you categorize as both. Francisco I. Madero was a writing medium, that is, a medium who channeled messages from the spirit world through his hand and pen onto paper. Can you explain this? And, is this type of mediumship still common today?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: Madero practiced automatic writing in which spirit personalities would control the movements of his arm and hand to write messages. It is common for many people, not knowing the difference, to confuse automatic writing with the phase of mediumship known as inspirational writing. With inspirational writing the medium's conscious and unconscious mind are very much involved with the process. Genuine automatic writing occurs typically quite rapidly with the medium unable to control the movements taking place. The conscious mind of the medium is not involved in the process and the medium could even be engaged in a conversation with others while the writing is produced.
In the period that Madero developed his mediumship the practice of automatic writing, the use of planchette and table for spirit communication was quite common for many mediums. Madero was heavily influenced by the writings of the French Spiritualist Kardec, whose classic Medium's Book was widely used by students of spirit communication as a standard for mediumistic unfoldment.
As a phase of mediumship automatic writing is not commonly practiced the way it would have been a century ago. In most countries around the world most mediums practice mental phases of mediumship such as clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience (psychic seeing, hearing and sensing). There are also many mediums who practice controlled speaking or trance channeling.
C.M. MAYO: How how would you, as a medium, evaluate Madero's mediumnistic notebooks? (These are preserved in his archive in Mexico's Ministry of Finance; in my book, I quoted from some of them, communications in Madero's handwriting signed by "Raúl," "José" and "B.J.").
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: I was impressed by Madero's dedication to God, the spirit world and his mission to help Mexico. He certainly appears to have lived by higher spiritual principles. The communications that he received I feel were genuine and indicate the great effort of teachers in the spirit world to use him as a positive influence in the material world. I would love to see all his notebooks published and your book distributed even more as Madero's work is an excellent example of a politician motivated selflessly out of love and duty.
[C.M. MAYO: The mediumnistic notebooks have been transcribed and published in volume VI. of Obras completas de Francisco Ignacio Madero, edited by Alejandro Rosas Robles, Editorial Clío, Mexico, 2000. For more about the work of Alejandro Rosas Robles and other Mexican historians on Madero and esoteric philosophy, see my post Lifting the (Very Heavy) Curtain on the Leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution].
C.M. MAYO: It seems that by the time Madero became president he was no longer channeling written messages but instead relied on "inspiration" or telepathic communication from spirits. My understanding is that Madero considered this an advance in his mediumnistic abilities. Would you agree?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: A student of mediumship is always progressing and as such the manner that his or her mediumship functions will evolve accordingly. I assume that Madero would have put considerable effort into growing as an individual as well as enhancing his own mediumistic skills. It is not that one phase of mediumship is better than another. All spiritual gifts are ways for the spirit personalities to bring love and healing to people in the material world. It is very common for mediums to develop new phases of mediumship as they gain experience and are ready. Madero was very progressive in all aspects of his life.
C.M. MAYO: One of the questions I invariably hear in any presentation or conference about Madero and his Spiritism is that, if he really were hearing from spirits, why did they not warn him about the coup d'etat of 1913, so that he could save himself? (Perhaps because as President coping with the challenges of governing, he no longer had the peace of mind to listen?) In Mediumship Mastery (p. 154-155) you write, "While warnings might be given in order to prevent a mishap, telling the recipient negative information such as he or she is going to die next week or be involved in a serious accident, generally would not come through with controlled regulated mediumship." Can you explain and/or elaborate?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: Madero would have been under great stress so it is very possible that his own mind would not have been receptive to warnings given by his guardians in the spirit world. On the other hand, we do not know the full picture in terms of his karma or lessons in this lifetime. Madero performed great works when he was physically present. I am sure that these great works would have continued in other realms after his physical death.
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: Kardec and many of the pioneers of the Spiritualist movement studied Mesmerism and altered-states-of-consciousness. The awareness of inducing trance states is crucial for the development of mediumistic ability. For example, with clairvoyance the more the medium is able to place his or her mind into a receptive state and get the analytical mind out of the way, the easier it will be to receive as well as accurately interpret spirit messages given in this manner. Mediumship mastery requires considerable discipline on the part of the medium. Hypnosis is an effective tool for helping student mediums train their minds and open up as instruments for the spirit personalities to work through.
II. ON SPIRITISM, SPIRITUALISM, THE PHILIPPINES, AND PSYCHIC SURGERY
C.M. MAYO: Spiritism developed in France from the root of Anglo-American Spiritualism. As a medium who has practiced and taught in various countries from the U.S. to New Zealand and including in the Philippines, do you see important differences in these traditions, Spiritualism and Spiritism, today?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: Spiritism and Spiritualism are branches of the same tree. A Spiritist is a Spiritualist who follows primarily the doctrine found within Kardec's writings. Anglo-American Spiritualists do not limit themselves to Kardec's writings and as a whole have not officially embraced the concept of reincarnation. The Spiritist approach generally places more emphasis on higher philosophy and less on phenomena or providing evidence of survival as the Spiritualist approach emphasizes. I think as a whole the Spiritist approach tends to be more progressive than what is found in many Spiritualist churches. However, Spiritists can be a bit dogmatic in adhering to Kardec's writings.
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C.M. MAYO: In your chapter "Spiritiual Healing" you discuss psychic surgery in the Philippines. Though Madero does not discuss psychic surgery in the Spiritist Manual, in my book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution, I mention the Filipino and Brazilian psychic surgeons as well as some Mexicans including Niño Fidencio and Doña Pachita because they are well-known in Mexico and I felt they represented traditions that could claim at least some tangly bit of roots in the early 20th century Spiritism of Madero. Would you agree? Also, have you practiced and/or witnessed any psychic surgery yourself?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: There have always been mediums or healers in all cultures. The Philippines were a Spanish colony for almost three hundred years. Many of the leaders of the revolution against Spanish rule were involved in the practice of Spiritualism. Kardec's writings were again a major influence in this part of the world.
I teach mediumship and healing worldwide and the Philippines is one of the countries I regularly visit. Over the years I have witnessed and experienced many remarkable physical and emotional healings with my own mediumship as well as the mediumship of others. With healing God is the healer and we are only vehicles for God's unconditional love to work through. Yes, I practice psychic surgery with the help of spirit doctors. However, I do not pull blood and guts out of people and drop it in a tin can as many Filipino healers do.
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C.M. MAYO: My understanding is that Spiritism arrived in the Philippines with Spanish translations of Kardec's works. Presumably many of these came out Barcelona, an important center for esoteric publishing (and indeed, many of the books in Madero's personal library were from Barcelona). When I discovered that Madero's 1911 Manual espírita had been reprinted by Casa Editorial Maucci in Barcelona in 1924, I immediately wondered whether any copies had made their way to the Philippines and so played some role in the spread of Spiritism there. Do you know anything about this?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: I do not know anything about this. Don Juan Alvear in 1901 founded the first Spiritist center in San Fabrian, Pangasinan. I have worked at this center many times and the energy is amazing. Alvear was a great political leader, educator and prominent intellectual. Like Madero, Alvear authored a book on mediumship and was a hero of the revolution. His statue is outside the government building and across the street from the Spiritist center he founded.
[C.M. MAYO: See Hermann's blog post about some history of Spiritism in the Philippines here. And for more about Spiritism in the Philippines, a subject on which I am admittedly very foggy, one place to start is Harvey Martin's The Secret Teachings of the Espiritistas.]
III. ON THE BHAGAVAD-GITA AND REINCARNATION
C.M. MAYO: In many places in your book, Mediumship Mastery, you quote from the Bhagavad-Gita.This was a work that fascinated Madero; he not only mentions it in his Spiritist Manual, but under the pseudonym "Arjuna"— the name of the warrior in the Bhagavad-Gita— he wrote articles about it and was planning a book about its wisdom for the modern world. The Bhagavad-Gita also had an important influence on Gandhi, Emerson, the Theosophists, and many others. One of its many teachings is about reincarnation. In your book's chapter "Past Life Readings," you mention that you have recollections of some of your past lives and also have received communications from spirits about others' past lives. Would you elaborate on reincarnation as explained in the Gita?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: The Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between the Supreme Personality and Arjuna. I try to read it as much as possible. Life is eternal as the personality continues into the world of spirit. The Bhagavad Gita explains the science of connecting with the Godhead and how to cultivate devotion or love of God. Every seven years pretty much all the molecules in our physical bodies change. So we are always changing physical bodies. Based on our consciousness at the end of this physical life we will end up having to take another physical birth. The Gita explains the process of transmigration and how we can ascend to higher levels.
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STEPHEN A. HERMANN: The Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between the Supreme Personality and Arjuna. I try to read it as much as possible. Life is eternal as the personality continues into the world of spirit. The Bhagavad Gita explains the science of connecting with the Godhead and how to cultivate devotion or love of God. Every seven years pretty much all the molecules in our physical bodies change. So we are always changing physical bodies. Based on our consciousness at the end of this physical life we will end up having to take another physical birth. The Gita explains the process of transmigration and how we can ascend to higher levels.
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C.M. MAYO: Like Madero in his Spiritist Manual, in your book, Mediumship Mastery, you advocate a vegetarian diet. Is this an idea that came to Spiritualism / Spiritism from Hindu philosophy?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: Higher teachers on both the physical and spiritual worlds always advocate vegetarianism as it is very bad to hurt animals and cause suffering to others. A true follower of Jesus would not want to hurt others as would a true follower of Buddha. There is only one God and we are all God's children. I am sure Madero was influenced by Vedic teachings which is why he loved the Bhagavad Gita.
IV. MORE ABOUT MADERO'S SPIRITIST MANUAL
C.M. MAYO: What surprised you the most about Madero's Spiritist Manual?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: I really loved reading the Spiritist Manual. It didn't really surprise me as I am familiar with everything he wrote already. However, I especially loved reading the extra sections about your research and his notes, etc. I think you did a fantastic job.
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.C.M. MAYO: In terms of his understanding of mediumnistic unfoldment—or anything else—are there any points where you would disagree with Madero's Spiritist Manual?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: Madero approaches mediumship heavily influenced by Kardec's Medium's Book. Nothing wrong with that as Kardec's work was way ahead of it's
time when it was published in 1861. However, the methods and approaches used by the spirit personalities to communicate, train and interact with mediums have greatly improved.
Back in the early years of Spiritualism there were no teachers of mediumship. Mediums learned through trial and error and with the assistance and input of teachers in the spirit world overtime created structured approaches to the unfoldment of the various phases of mediumship.
Madero was brilliant and had he not have been murdered his mediumship would have expanded even more. Love, harmony, enthusiasm, and higher purpose are the qualities needed to create the best conditions for successful mediumistic communications. Madero possessed all these qualities and more.
In the early years of Spiritualism there was much physical phenomena or manifestations of spirit power that could be directly experienced through the five physical senses. Nowadays, people are much more intellectually oriented and as such the mediumship practiced is mainly mental or telepathic in nature. It is not that one method is better but just better suited for the age. The methods for training mediums have greatly improved and expanded in the last 168 years.
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.C.M. MAYO: In terms of his understanding of mediumnistic unfoldment—or anything else—are there any points where you would disagree with Madero's Spiritist Manual?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: Madero approaches mediumship heavily influenced by Kardec's Medium's Book. Nothing wrong with that as Kardec's work was way ahead of it's
Back in the early years of Spiritualism there were no teachers of mediumship. Mediums learned through trial and error and with the assistance and input of teachers in the spirit world overtime created structured approaches to the unfoldment of the various phases of mediumship.
Madero was brilliant and had he not have been murdered his mediumship would have expanded even more. Love, harmony, enthusiasm, and higher purpose are the qualities needed to create the best conditions for successful mediumistic communications. Madero possessed all these qualities and more.
In the early years of Spiritualism there was much physical phenomena or manifestations of spirit power that could be directly experienced through the five physical senses. Nowadays, people are much more intellectually oriented and as such the mediumship practiced is mainly mental or telepathic in nature. It is not that one method is better but just better suited for the age. The methods for training mediums have greatly improved and expanded in the last 168 years.
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C.M. MAYO: As you were reading Madero's Spiritist Manual, or before or afterwards, did you ever sense that you were in communication with / sensing Madero's spirit? Is there anything you would like to say about that?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: I would think that Madero most likely would have been around you a lot when you were researching and writing the book. I do not know if he was around me when I was reading the book, but I do feel that he and I would have a lot in common if we were to meet. I think we would get along pretty well as I can relate to where he was at in terms of his mediumship and his spirituality in general.
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C.M. MAYO: In your book, Mediumship Mastery (p. 9) you introduce the subtle bodies that interpenetrate the physical body. As I read it, this is a somewhat different explanation from given by Madero where he, following Kardec, talks about the "perispirit." Can you explain?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: The perispirit is the subtle or astral covering. Madero uses Kardec's terminology. We have a physical body with subtle bodies interpenetrating it. After physical death the soul continues to function through the astral body and travels into the spirit world.
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: The perispirit is the subtle or astral covering. Madero uses Kardec's terminology. We have a physical body with subtle bodies interpenetrating it. After physical death the soul continues to function through the astral body and travels into the spirit world.
V. ON MEDIUMSHIP AND ENERGIES
C.M. MAYO: My experience has been that not all but most people either dismiss mediumship as impossible or, believing it possible, are frightened that, in calling on the spirit world, they might encounter negative entities. In particular, the Catholic and many other churches sternly warn against dabbling in conjuring spirits, especially with Ouija boards. In the introduction to your book, Mediumship Mastery, you write, "In all my years of working as a medium, I have never experienced anything negative or that made me feel uncomfortable. My experience of mediumship has always been genuinely positive, loving, and comfortable." It would seem, from my reading of the Spiritist Manual, that Madero would have agreed. But has this been the case for others you know?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: Mediumship is all about love and healing. However, training is important as is proper motivation. Someone could have a bad experience with mediumship if they dabble in it or go about doing it in a superficial way. Spiritual mediumship is completely orchestrated by higher spirit personalities. Mediumship is not a board game for drunk teenagers to play at 2 AM. Like attracts like.
C.M. MAYO: In your book's final chapter, "Dealing with Skeptics," you write, "People who are closed off and negative for any reason, which would include hardcore skeptics, are
exceptionally more difficult to work with as the energies are not as strong, the links to the spirit world weaker, and the connections more incomplete and vague."
It seems to me that U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, who disdained Madero as mentally unbalanced and who, for his support for the coup d'etat that ended with Madero's murder in 1913, has gone down as one of the archvillians of Mexican history, had much in common with the rigidmindedness of celebrity skeptics such as the Amazing Randi. Would you agree?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: I don't know Randi personally nor do I know the US Ambassador of that period. Who knows what motivates people on a deeper level? However, Randi does seem very closed off to higher consciousness and intuitive ability. I suspect that Ambassador Wilson was motivated completely by lower, selfish interests and as a result would have cut himself off from higher spiritual influences.
Skeptics are not necessarily immoral or callous individuals. They just do not often believe in the mystical and are highly suspect of claims that do not fit their rationalist view of the world. I appreciate skepticism as many people are completely gullible and easily misled. It is important to not throw out your intelligence when dealing with mediumship as there is a fine line with genuine psychic impressions and your own imagination.
C.M. MAYO: In your book's final chapter, "Dealing with Skeptics," you write, "People who are closed off and negative for any reason, which would include hardcore skeptics, are
exceptionally more difficult to work with as the energies are not as strong, the links to the spirit world weaker, and the connections more incomplete and vague."It seems to me that U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, who disdained Madero as mentally unbalanced and who, for his support for the coup d'etat that ended with Madero's murder in 1913, has gone down as one of the archvillians of Mexican history, had much in common with the rigidmindedness of celebrity skeptics such as the Amazing Randi. Would you agree?
STEPHEN A. HERMANN: I don't know Randi personally nor do I know the US Ambassador of that period. Who knows what motivates people on a deeper level? However, Randi does seem very closed off to higher consciousness and intuitive ability. I suspect that Ambassador Wilson was motivated completely by lower, selfish interests and as a result would have cut himself off from higher spiritual influences.
Skeptics are not necessarily immoral or callous individuals. They just do not often believe in the mystical and are highly suspect of claims that do not fit their rationalist view of the world. I appreciate skepticism as many people are completely gullible and easily misled. It is important to not throw out your intelligence when dealing with mediumship as there is a fine line with genuine psychic impressions and your own imagination.
> Visit the webpage of Rev. Stephen A. Hermann, author of Mediumship Mastery
> Visit the web page for Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book
> Visit the webpage for my book, together with a transcription of Madero's Manual espírita, in Spanish, Odisea metafísica hacia la Revolución Mexicana.
> Visit the webpage for Resources for Researchers
Catherine L. Albanese's A Republic of Mind and Spirit:
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