Chico Xavier and the Sacred Experience: a Semiotic and Ethnopsychological Perspective

The experience of the Sacred in the life of Chico Xavier, a prominent 20th-century Brazilian Spiritist medium, is examined through semiotics and ethnopsychology. Spiritism shifted from its philosophical French origins to a religiously dominant form in Brazil. Two narratives about Xavier are analyzed: one concerning his spiritual mission, emphasizing discipline and asceticism; the other about conversion and healing, highlighting reflexivity, coherence between belief and conduct, and transformative processes. The Sacred in Xavier's context involves musement, a dialogical language, collective and communal diffusion, consensual criteria for legitimacy, and psychic power linked to love and the future.

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Abstract

This article aims to propose and understanding of the Sacred experience in relation to Chico Xavier, an important Brazilian Spiritist medium from the twentieth century. From a theoretical methodology based on semiotics and ethnopsychology, the article initially begins with a discussion on the notion of Sacred and the changes that occurred in Spiritism since its origins in France, linked to philosophy, until its arrival in Brazil, where the religious content became dominant. Then, the article provides two tales about Chico Xavier and their analysis in terms of their relationship with the Sacred. In the first story, about his spiritual mission, topics such as discipline and asceticism are highlighted; in the second, about conversion and healing, topics related to reflexivity, coherence between belief and conduct, and the processes of transformation typical of conversion are emphasized. In the conclusion, some aspects on the specificity of the experience of the Sacred brought by Chico Xavier are noted, such as the character of musement , the need for a language of dialogue, the collective and community content of their diffusion, the need for consensual criteria for legitimacy, along with the problem of psychic power, as something essentially linked to love and future.