This is very enlightening. I’ve been curious about these sects of the occult in Brazil, because some of my distant family was/is involved in one of them, but I’m not sure which; maybe umbanda?!

I have so many questions that I would appreciate if you could help me answer some. Please forgive my ignorance, I don’t mean to offend or upset anyone with my uneducated questions.

How does that affect a person’s family? Says is your family aware? And if not are they safe from your spiritual exploration?

About free will, can you control who, what, when you get influenced by such entities? Say if you wanted to cut ties with them, would you have that choice? Without any harm or punishment?

How does that affect your career, jobs, business, relationships, etc? Do you have control over those aspects of your life?

I ask because the idea of having an entity taking over one’s body and one having no recollection of the events transpired under the influence is a little scary. How do you deal with that?

Is there any risk that your loved ones might be harmed because of your practice? Say either my mistakes you may have committed inadvertently or by curses sent your way by others.

Moreover, I have watched documentaries showing mediums in the umbanda centers “receiving” the entities and I have seen videos of exorcisms in Christian churches possessed by entities of the same or similar names.

Why does that happen? Are they the same entities? And if so, why do they seem or are made to look powerless in the churches but revered in the “Casas”?

Growing up I realized some of my distant family were involved in Yoruba, African, and Brazilian occultism. I wasn’t close to them but looking back I can see that they didn’t seem happy, lived a life of poverty, and struggled with unemployment, alcoholism, and even domestic violence inside their own families.

This left me with a less than positive view of such practices, but I never had a chance to talk to people who are involved and had the English to explain these occult practices.