DANBURY, CONN. — The Western Connecticut State University Office of Intercultural Affairs will present Benjamin Teixeira de Aguiar, who will discuss “Spirituality With or Without Religion” at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018, in the Ballroom of the Campus Center on the university’s Westside campus, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury. It will feature English and Portuguese translations. This “WCSU Holiday Celebrations from Around the World” event will be free and the public is invited. Get tickets at www.eventbrite.com/e/holiday-celebrations-around-the-world-spirituality-with-or-without-religion-tickets-52482372188.
Teixeira de Aguiar, a spiritual leader, medium, lecturer, writer and TV host, is well-known throughout Brazil and South America, and has followers in more than 170 countries. He is the president and founder of the Quantum Leap Institute, a nonprofit Christian spiritual school of thought, which was launched in 1994.
“This is a lecture on spirituality, from a scientific modern perspective of reality, with the opportunity for the audience to ask questions,” Teixeira de Aguiar said.
Bharbara Viegas, a WCSU Justice and Law Administration (JLA) student with a concentration in legal studies, is a follower of Teixeira de Aguiar’s work and became a member of his institution three years ago. She works in the Office of InterCultural Affairs, where she pitched the idea of bringing the speaker to campus to the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs. With the help and co-sponsorship of the student organization WestConn Without Borders, the event finally came to fruition.
“He comes to the United States once a year to hold his international lectures and has spoken at the United Nations and the World Trade Center,” Viegas said. “He wanted to do more outreach to students, so I thought that coming to WCSU would be a great fit.”
Viegas believes that the community can benefit from his talk because he is trying to bring to people an understanding of themselves and others by promoting inclusion and acceptance, since younger generations are increasingly more reluctant to join organized religion.
“Young people miss out on the many benefits of practicing their own individual form of spirituality, whether it be through meditation, prayer or personal introspection,” she said. “But everyone is accepted, regardless of religious affiliation; whether it be atheist, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, etc.”
Teixeira de Aguiar’s Quantum Leap Institute is disassociated from any formal religious affiliation and spreads ideas that foster spirituality, wisdom, peace and happiness through mass communication. Its headquarters are in Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil, with a main branch in the Danbury area, and its website publishes daily messages of enlightenment and guidance in text, audio or video, by Teixeira de Aguiar’s mediumistic practices.
Marcone Viera, a member of Quantum Leap Institute, believes this event is a great opportunity for WCSU students. “They will have access to a renowned spiritual leader followed by more than five million people worldwide on his Facebook pages, the founder and president of an organization with special consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations Economic and Social Council.”
Teixeira de Aguiar’s work also offers community development programs at Sister Brigida’s Health Centre, the organization’s social services headquarters in Brazil. It benefits hundreds of people in the community by providing services such as medical care, dental care, Christian-spiritual education, citizenship rights and classes, English classes, writing classes, empowerment projects for women, distribution of soup, bread and snacks, food pantries and much more.
For more information, contact the Office of InterCultural Affairs at (203) 837-8961.
Western Connecticut State University changes lives by providing all students with a high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals, scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.