Nosso Lar is the name of a city that no one can visit. It appears described in a book from 1944, told by a deceased doctor who says he woke up on the other side without understanding where he was.
The account became the most read spiritist book in Brazil and later a film with more than 4 million viewers. Few readers, however, stop to notice what the work actually describes: a bureaucracy. Ministries, work hours, time logs and a line for a home of their own.
This guide reconstructs the colony from the inside. How it organizes itself, what the hourly bonus is, who is in charge, and why the doctrine itself avoids calling that place heaven.
What is the spiritual colony Nosso Lar
According to the account, Nosso Lar is a community of disincarnate spirits, maintained by workers of the spiritual plane and focused on relief, study and the preparation of new reincarnations.
The work presents it as founded in the mid-16th century by Portuguese people already disincarnate in Brazil. The book situates it above an extensive region of the State of Rio de Janeiro, between the capital and the strip of Campos and Itaperuna. The described layer is well away from the crust.
Work details
- Title: Nosso Lar
- Spiritual author: spirit André Luiz
- Medium: Francisco Cândido Xavier, the Chico Xavier
- Psychography and publication: psychographed in 1943 and published by FEB in 1944
- Structure: 50 chapters, first volume of the collection "Life in the Spiritual World"
- Population described: about 1 million spirits
A caveat that applies to the entire article. Everything that follows is a description from spiritist mediumistic literature, presented as the testimony of a spirit. None of this is a fact verifiable by scientific method, and the spiritist movement itself treats the subject with different degrees of adherence.
The star-shaped city and the Governadoria
The urban design described in the book draws attention for its geometry. The colony has a six-pointed star shape, inscribed in a circle, with the Governadoria occupying the center.
Each ministry receives a tower and a neighborhood in a triangle shape. Around them are distributed the residential, work, and leisure sectors, including squares, libraries, and rest homes.
The Governadoria takes care of what any large city needs to solve: food, energy, traffic, and transportation. Each ministry functions under the direction of twelve ministers.
The highest figure of the colony is the Governor, a spirit of high hierarchy whose name the book never reveals. He appears only once, in a speech to workers in the middle of World War II.
The six ministries of Our Home
The backbone of the colony are six ministries, each with a defined function.
- Regeneration: takes care of the densest services, along the strips near the earth's crust
- Auxílio: receives those arriving from the threshold, attends to the sick, organizes relief caravans, and prepares reincarnations
- Communication: makes contact between the spiritual plane and the earthly plane
- Clarification: responds for the education and instruction of the inhabitants
- Elevation: works on renunciation and personal improvement
- Divine Union: reserved for spirits who no longer need to be reborn on Earth
There is a ladder logic in this list. The first four keep the colony connected to earthly spheres. The last two point toward the superior plane.
It is this distribution that sustains the definition of a transition zone. The Ministry of Auxílio, for example, dedicates a good part of its effort to preparing those who will be born again, a theme that the blog details in reincarnation in Spiritism.
The work and the bonus-hour
Here is the detail that most surprises those who arrive at the book expecting eternal rest. In Our Home, work is done.
The reference journey is eight hours of useful service per day, with a scheduled rest period. Each inhabitant receives strictly what is necessary to live, something close to bread and clothing.
Every service provided is recorded in what the work calls bonus-hour. The term confuses many people by sounding like a salary, but it describes something else: an individual work record, which functions as a value of exchange within the colony.
With accumulated bonus-hour, the inhabitant can get their own house, access to courses, and leisure spaces. Overtime yields double or triple credit. Chapter 22 of the work takes exactly the title "The bonus-hour".
A scene illustrates the scale well. A lady seeks Minister Clarêncio to ask for a favor and presents 304 accumulated hour-bonuses over more than six years in the colony. The minister considers the total very low.
From the umbral to the colony: how André Luiz arrived
The book begins far from the organized city. André Luiz awakens after death in a gloomy region and spends a long period of suffering and confusion, until he makes a sincere prayer asking for help.
Spiritual workers collect him and take him to Nosso Lar, where he undergoes treatment in the Ministry of Aid before becoming a collaborator of the colony. This gloomy region at the beginning has its own article on the blog, in umbral in Spiritism.
Is Nosso Lar heaven?
The answer that Spiritist literature itself gives is negative, and this point often goes unnoticed.
The colony functions as a transition zone. It is one among many similar communities described in mediumistic literature, and the majority of its inhabitants continue studying, working, and preparing to be reborn. The final destination is not there.
It is worth noting another fact, with honesty. The concept of "spiritual colony" does not appear in the codification of Allan Kardec. In the books of the codification, life in the beyond is described much more as a state of consciousness than as an organized location with an address and office hours.
This fuels a lively debate within the Spiritist movement itself. Scholars linked to the Study Group The Legacy of Allan Kardec argue that Kardecian sources authorize treating the colonies as a possibility, never as doctrinal confirmation. Other researchers recall that descriptions of social organization in the spiritual world circulated before André Luiz.
Two readings coexist in Brazilian Spiritism. One sees the colonies as a natural detailing of the doctrine. Another treats them as a narrative of moral value, without the status of dogma. Neither disqualifies the faith of those who adopt the other.
For those who arrived here after losing someone, a note. The book offers comfort through the idea of continuity, and that has real value. Even so, no mediumship work delivers proof, and grief is not resolved by reading.
The book, the collection, and the film
Our Home opens the collection "Life in the Spiritual World," with thirteen titles signed by André Luiz. The others are The Messengers, Missionaries of Light, Workers of Eternal Life, In the Greater World, Liberation, Between Earth and Heaven, In the Domains of Mediumship, Action and Reaction, Evolution in Two Worlds, Mechanisms of Mediumship, Sex and Destiny and And Life Continues.
André Luiz is a pseudonym. The FEB records only that he was a sanitary doctor who worked in Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of the 20th century. The true name was never revealed.
The medium's complete catalog, with the 412 published works, is gathered in Chico Xavier books.
In 2010, the book became a film directed by Wagner de Assis, premiered on September 3, with a budget of R$ 20 million and a soundtrack by Philip Glass. The production took more than 4 million viewers to the cinema. In 2024, the sequel arrived, Our Home 2: The Messengers, with 544 thousand people in the first weekend.
Frequently asked questions
Does Our Home really exist?
It is a description from spiritist mediumistic literature, presented as a testimony from the spirit André Luiz. There is no scientific evidence proving the existence of the colony. Within the spiritist doctrine, the account is accepted as an instructive narrative, with varying degrees of adherence among scholars.
Where is the spiritual colony Nosso Lar located?
The book places it above an extensive region of the State of Rio de Janeiro, between the capital and the stretch of Campos and Itaperuna. The described layer is set away from the earth's crust. The location is part of the account, and not a verifiable geographic coordinate.
What is the bônus-hora in Nosso Lar?
It is the individual record of the service provided by each inhabitant of the colony. It functions as an internal exchange value: with accumulated bonuses, the spirit obtains their own house, courses, and access to leisure. Overtime yields double or triple credit, according to the work.
Is Nosso Lar heaven?
No. The work describes a transition colony, one among many, where the inhabitants study, work, and generally prepare to reincarnate. The ministries of Elevation and Divine Union point toward higher planes, which confirms that the colony is not the final point.
How many books are in the André Luiz collection?
The collection "Life in the Spiritual World" brings together thirteen titles, with Nosso Lar being the first of them. The general catalog of the FEB lists seventeen works signed by the same spiritual author, which includes titles outside of this series.
Where to find spiritist study material
At Joia Mística Laroyê, you find support for study and for practice at home:
- Spiritist doctrine books: works of the codification and mediumistic literature for group or individual study
- White candles: the most used in the gospel at home worship and in moments of prayer
- Soft incense: lavender, rosemary and frankincense to prepare the study environment
- Framed pictures and statues: pieces for the home prayer corner
- Study notebooks: to accompany readings and center meetings
Visit our shop at Rua Benedito Zingari, 460, Bela Vista, in Extrema, Minas Gerais, or call on WhatsApp with delivery to all of Brazil.
References
- FEB Editora: official page of the work Nosso Lar, with authorship, year and synopsis
- Wikipedia: entry for the Spiritual Colony Nosso Lar, with ministries, population and city format
- Wikipedia: entry for the film Nosso Lar, by Wagner de Assis
- Passatempo Espírita: lesson about the colony, the six ministries and the mechanics of the bonus-hour
- Allan Kardec Legacy Study Group: critical analysis of spiritual colonies in light of the codification
- Spiritism with Kardec: article about Spiritists and spiritual colonies
