Spiritual
Illnesses
(Part 1)
Correcting
spiritual
problems
involves
re-educating the
Spirit;
symptomatic
treatments may
bring immediate
aid or
an important but
transient relief
The Spiritist
Objective
Spiritism is a
doctrine which
introduces to
the level of
medical
knowledge a vast
field of study
expanding
diagnosis and
introducing a
new
understanding to
justify the
reason for the
suffering that
disease brings.
However,
Spiritism came
not to compete
with any medical
specialty and
its main role is
not to produce
cures.
Very often
its followers
use it for these
purposes
suggesting, in
their pursuit,
the comfort and
cure of
diseases. Its
primary role is
to illuminate
and clarify, so
that each
creature may
promote their
spiritual
re-education.
Without inner
reform neither
progress nor
healing will
occur. In this
sense,
diseases are
understood as
lessons with
great potential
for change and
provide
opportunities
for renewal and
spiritual
growth.
Anamnesis facing
Spirituality
Most of our
patients very
well accept a
dialogue with
their doctor
about their
spirituality.
In general
people, due to
superstition or
even wisdom,
recognize that
many diseases
have something
to do with
spirituality,
either as a
cause or as a
beneficial
process towards
its healing.
One can explore
the medical
examination so
that the patient
realizes that
talking about
spirituality
does not mean
committing
to a religion
and that one and
the other can be
perfectly
separated.
Assessment
Method
We have learned
to adopt an
arbitrary
criterion on
which the
spirituality of
the patient is
assessed in
three areas
(1):
The domain of
belief:
Here, the
patient reveals
his beliefs or
not in God's
existence, in
the existence
and immortality
of the soul, the
invisible world
inhabited by
spirits, the
possibility of
communication
with his God, in
reincarnation,
in the
communication of
spirits with us.
This
relationship
with the
spirituality to
which patients
often refer is
almost always
very specific
and individual,
being sometimes
very difficult
to be expressed
in words, since
it is linked to
a belief that is
not
transferable,
sacred to each
one of those who
accept and
entail, as
maximum demand,
the respect one
expects to have
towards his own
conviction.
The domain of
practice:
It refers to the
behaviour
that each person
develops in
relation to his
beliefs or
religion he says
he follows.
Thus, we will
identify the
occasional and
the frequent
goers, the
participative
and the
indifferent, the
curious and the
investigative,
all with greater
or lesser
commitment to
implement the
lessons they
hear that their
religion would
teach.
The domain of
transcendent
experience:
It is the
participation
often
"traumatic,"
episodic,
occasional or
persistent and
controlled that
certain people
enjoy with
spirituality.
There are
examples of
people who are
surprised by the
sight of a
spiritual
entity,
something that
could have
happened only
once in their
lifetime but
that
deeply marked
them. Others,
in a moment of
severe stress,
such as an
automobile
accident or a
plane crash,
when they were
the only
survivors, felt,
thereafter,
touched by a
prime
intervention of
the deities who
protect them.
This group also
includes those
cases of out of
body
experiences,
which reflect an
unfolding of the
spiritual body,
with a more or
less lengthy
displacement
through the
spiritual world.
In these cases,
there may or may
not be an
awareness of
contacts with
entities that
protect them
during these
"out of body"
displacements.
Among many other
examples that
the Spiritist
Doctrine is
privileged to
make clear in
its details, the
whole
mediumistic
phenomenology
needs to be
highlighted, as
well as,
emphasised,
revealing the
mysterious ways
of mediumship
whose channels
of communication
puts us
in contact with
the spiritual
world.
In the
transcendent
experience of
mediumship,
moral discipline
plays a
productive role
in the degree of
spiritual
elevation of the
phenomenon.
The
Physiopathogeny
The possibility
of a spiritual
illness can only
be accepted with
the belief in a
new paradigm
introduced by
the Spiritist
doctrine in its
principles
(2).
Spiritism
teaches that God
is the "Supreme
Intelligence of
the Universe"
and all that
exists is part
of His creation.
Each of us is an
incarnated
Spirit in the
learning process
that necessarily
takes us to
perfection after
an unimaginable
number of
reincarnations
in this and
other worlds
where there is
also life.
When the body
perishes, the
soul that
animates it
starts to live
in the spiritual
world where all
the other
Spirits who have
gone before us
are.
The spiritual
world is in
close connection
with the
material world
we inhabit, and
the Spirits who
live there
constantly exert
a strong
interference in
our lives.
Beyond the
physical body,
each one of us
makes use of
another body
intermediate in
nature
of our physical
reality and the
spiritual world.
This
spiritual body
or perispirit is
consolidated by
the "cosmic
fluid" available
in each of the
inhabited
worlds.
Thought is the
creative force
from the Spirit
which drives
him.
Even knowing
very little of
their
properties, we
know that the
mental energy
externalized by
thought exerts
thorough
influence in the
spiritual body,
changing its
shape,
appearance and
consistency.
It is
so that
Allan Kardec
asserted that in
the perispirit
lies the true
cause of many
diseases and
medicine would
benefit if
better
understood its
nature(3).
Each of us lives
in tune with the
spiritual
environment
that, through
our attitudes
and desires, we
build for
ourselves.
Diagnosis of
Illness or
Spiritual
Manifestation
It seems that
there are two
interpretation
vices among
Spiritists on
the
manifestations
of spirituality.
Very often
everyone who
goes to a
Spiritist Center
seeking advice
for
their problems
will listen that
his case is
"obsession" or
at least
"mediumship" and
that he "needs
to develop it."
We must
recognize that,
as human
creatures
following
through with one
more incarnation
on this planet
we belong to a
vast group of
Spirits who,
without
exception, is
still heavily in
debt and
committed to
their atonement,
to dare to say
that he has no
spiritual
problem.
In medical
circles,
the Germans
often say that
"only that one
who has not been
examined yet is
healthy.” From
the spiritual
point of view
such a
statement, far
from being an
exaggeration of
the detailed
German
exigencies, is a
truth which only
one who did not
stop to examine
his conscience
can deny.
Classification
Considering the
Physiopathogeny
of the spiritual
illnesses, we
usually adopt
the following
set of diagnoses
(4):
1 - Self-induced
Spiritual
Illnesses:
·
Vibratory
imbalance
·
Self-obsession
2 - Shared
Spiritual
Illnesses:
·
Vampirism
·
Obsession
3 - Mediumism
4 - Karmic
Illnesses.
Vibratory
Imbalance
The perispirit
is an
intermediary
body that allows
the incarnated
Spirit
to exert its
actions on the
physical body.
Its connection
is done cell by
cell,
reaching the
deepest intimacy
of the atoms
that constitute
the organic
matter in the
physical body.
This
connection takes
place at the
expense of
vibrations that
each of the two
bodies, the
physical and
spiritual, have
(5).
It is understood
that this
"adjustment"
requires a
certain
vibratory
harmony.
The Perispirit
is not a
prisoner of the
physical
dimensions of
the flesh and
can manifest its
actions beyond
the limits of
the physical
body through the
projection of
its fluids.
Tuning and
irradiation of
the perispirit
are dependent
solely on the
mental
projections
elaborated by
the spirit.
Thus, the
appearance and
the relationship
between the
physical and
spiritual body
are dependent
exclusively on
the flow of
ideas one
builds.
We must
recognize that,
in general,
human beings
still spend much
of their days
engaged in
criticism of the
other, hatred,
slander,
unreasonable
demands,
idleness, anger
and bitterness
among many other
frivolous
complaints
against life and
against all. The
Watch and Pray
is still far
from our routine
and the
temptation to
list the faults
of others is
still very big.
These are the
reasons that
disturb the
harmony between
the physical
body and
perispirit.
It is this
disharmony that
triggers the
usual feelings
of malaise,
of
disproportionate
"burnout",
systemic
fatigue, sighing
dyspnea when the
air always seems
to be lacking,
the muscles that
hurt and do not
seem to hold the
body
(6),
the migraine the
doctor can not
heal, the
digestion that
never sleeps and
so many other
events that are
taken
as
"psychosomatic
illnesses.”
There are so
many seeking the
doctors, but few
engaging in a
reflection on
the damage
caused by their
petty attitudes.
Self-obsession
Thought is
energy that
builds images
that are
consolidated
around us
drawing a "field
of
representations"
of our ideas.
At the expense
of the absorbed
elements of the
"universal
cosmic fluid,"
the ideas take
shape, supported
by the intensity
in which we
think such ideas
stand for us.
The mental
matter
(7)
builds around us
a "psychological
atmosphere" -
the psychosphere
- that
is represented
by
our desires. In
this setting lie
the characters
that trap our
thought up
through love or
hatred, envy or
greed,
indifference or
through the
protection we
project towards
the ones we
care.
Likewise, the
fears, anxieties
and unresolved
grievances,
fixed ideas, the
desire for
revenge,
crystallized
opinions, and
the objects of
seduction, power
or the coveted
titles are also
structured into
"Idea-shapes.”
Thenceforth, we
will be
prisoners of our
own fear, the
ghosts of our
distress, the
images of our
adversaries, the
delusion of
earthly
pleasures or
illusory
brightness of
human conceits.
The mental
matter produces
illusory
"image" that
enslaves us. Due
to our whim, we
are
therefore
"obsessed" by
our own desires.
Shared Spiritual
Illnesses
Included here
are vampirism
and obsession.
We
say shared
because they are
produced by the
combination of
the disturbing
association of a
disembodied
spirit
and his victim,
both suffering
the same
psychopathological
process.
Participation as
a victim or
malefactor is
often swapped
between them.
(Continued in
the next issue
of this
magazine.)
References:
1 - See William
Miller:
Integrating
Spirituality
into Treatment:
Resource for
Practitioners
2 - See
“Paradigmas
Espíritas na
Prática Médica”
(Spiritist
Paradigm in
Medical
Practice)
in my book
“Muito Além dos
Neurônios” (Far
beyond the
Neurons).
3 -
The
Spirits' Book.
Allan Kardec.
4
- The
classification
here adopted is
arbitrary.
We have reported
it on several
occasions every
time we talk
about "Spiritual
Illnesses".
The book
Missionários da
Luz
(Missionaries of
Light),
André
Luiz / Chico
Xavier was the
inspiration for
the description
of the framework
presented here.
5 -
Mecanismos da
Mediunidade (Mechanisms
of Mediumship).
André Luiz /
Chico Xavier.
6 -
The Spirits'
Book,
question 471.
7 -
Mecanismos da
Mediunidade
(Mechanisms of
Mediumship).
André Luiz /
Chico Xavier.
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