About Chico Xavier Chico Xavier (born Francisco Cândido Xavier; April 2, 1910 - June 30, 2002) was a popular medium in Brazil´s spiritism movement. In his life he wrote more than 400 books in a process known as Automatic writing. He was born in the city of Pedro Leopoldo, State of Minas Gerais and is popularly known as "Chico Xavier" (Chico is the Brazilian nickname for Francisco). Throughout his life he wrote more than 400 books, using a process known as psychography, where his hand was said to be guided by spirits that wanted to leave a written message, or sometimes entire books. Xavier's spiritual guide was called Emmanuel. According to the medium's writings, in Roman times Emmanuel had been Senator Publius Lentulus; he had been reincarnated in Spain as Father Damian, and later as a professor at the Sorbonne.Some of his books are considered by Brazilian spiritist followers to be fundamental for the comprehension of the practical and theoretical aspects of Allan Kardec's doctrine. As reported by Xavier, his spiritual guide Emmanuel specifically warned him that if any teaching seemed to be in contradiction with Jesus Christ's or Allan Kardec's teachings, that he should stay with Jesus Christ and Allan Kardec. Chico Xavier kept a simple life, donating all the income from the books he wrote and the donations he received to charity. He provided food to the needy every day in Uberaba, who would form long lines to also get a word with him. He believed that the message of Spiritism belonged to the world. He received a book in English reportedly from US-born spirit authors ("Between Brothers of Other Lands") while on a trip to the US in 1965, and messages in various languages to the effect that every country has a role to play in spreading the Gospel, including Brazil (Brasil, Coração do Mundo, Pátria do Evangelho (Brazil, Heart of the World, Home of the Gospel). These messages contained guidelines directing that the word foreign must be scratched from the dictionary -- "The children of other homelands must be treated as true brothers". His appearances on TV talk shows in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped to establish Kardecist Spiritism as one of the main religions professed in Brazil. At the peak of his activities, it was common for celebrities to visit his home in the city of Uberaba, Minas Gerais, for moral and spiritual advice, or just for talking. For more than 30 years he was seen as a kind of national "guru" whose advice people sought out. He often stressed the point that none of the abilities attributed to him were really his, but that he was only a channel for the work of the spirits; that he was not able to produce any miracle, such as healing people, and he could not contact someone that was dead, unless that person was willing to be contacted. He had many public presentations and on national TV, with live spiritual communication at the request of attendees, who could positively verify the personal or informative details of such communications. He did not concern himself with proving the veracity of his claims or submitting to scientific experiments, in order to convince skeptics of his claims. His attitude is common in spiritism, where followers are usually not concerned about proselitism. He claimed in a public TV interview (see first question and answer in national TV segment) that the very size of his body of work (about a hundred thousand pages), the diversity of their subjects, the large number of supposedly different authors (more than 400, some of them foreign), their different styles and their elevated moral would make it impossible for him to be their author.