Mental illnesses and Spiritualistic healing
Jorge Hessen

Years ago, medicine created places of seclusion (isolation) as supposed treatment for people with mental illnesses. However, psychiatric reform started questioning such medieval model, revealing new ways of working. In the middle of the last century, the intense “psychiatricalization” of treatments was reinforced by the introduction of the first neuroleptics (fat soluble drugs with high absorption and penetration by the Central Nervous System), and their indiscriminate and abusive use, thus making mental illness chronic and incapacitating.

Gradually, some transformations were making up the setting of the struggle in favor of mental health in other hospital like spaces, as opposed to strictly mental asylum measures. The reformulation of the practices concerning psychiatric treatment brought – and still does – changes in the perception and intervention of health professionals regarding the illness and the patient. “New procedures, based on the psychosocial rehabilitation of the ones who suffer from mental illnesses, suggest more humanized practices, aiming at reintegrating the individual to society. Nowadays, we see art therapy and other techniques being applied, all “considered important interventions within this more human approach.” (1)

Those practices in the field of mental health are in conformity with therapeutic workshops, one of the healing methods in the context of psychiatric reform. They are carried out by many means, including through music and theater. Recreational arts (the “playing”) were identified as possibilities of communication for people with psychotic disorders, based on psychoanalysis and the works of several specialists. Thereby, “clinical psychology was enriched by psycho dramatic treatment, with an understanding of the disease from a collective standpoint, as opposed to an individual one”. (2)

Presumably, mental turmoil is just another aspect of the individual’s history, in such a way that “it is necessary to take into consideration a whole life history, which is comprised of social relations among other situations” (3) The realization or perception of the other is hard for the ones who are in a state of alteration of perception and thought, captured by delusions and hallucinations. As we observe nowadays, “through the exercise of art, it is possible to stimulate a balanced focus on oneself and others in a pleasant and playful way.” (4) Adults, as as well as young people and children, who carry the burden of conflicts, grieves, abandonment and problems that range from bipolar disorder, depression and hyperactivity to schizophrenia, are under treatment at the Instituto de Psiquiatria do Hospital das Clinicas (HC), in Sao Paulo. The results are promising, especially with the children, with whom they apply therapeutic resources based on fairy tales. This kind of literature can reproduce the conflicts of the mentally ill. From the fable of the orphan, to the tale of the rejected princess, it’s all ingrained in the books and skits of the proposed therapeutics. The results are very interesting, especially with the improvement of social behavior, creativity, motor coordination and speech of patients.

Artistic activities as therapy for mental health

In the midst of activities, the patient can find alternatives for a more healthy positioning, as the activity enables to separate the image formed by one’s own fears and desires, from what it really is. In many role-playing games, the “make-believe” allows for that. In the therapeutic theater, “reality is tested through illusion (…) through a well-humored process of self-reflection”.(5) In this sense, we highlight the initiative of psychiatric treatment carried out by the Association Viva e Deixe Viver, an entity dedicated to recruiting and training storytellers for hospitalized children and teens. The Association, founded in 1997, is obtaining good results in its first experiences with patients in a psychiatric hospital. The philosophy of the group is to use the therapeutic possibilities the “make believe” can bring. With the most varied artistic activities, proposed either by the group or the participants, they make possible the exercise of spontaneity, arising feelings and emotions in the affected by the disease such as fear, anger, jealousy, sexual delusions, ideas of death, loneliness, fear of living, crisis, the meaning of crisis, confinement, dreams, politics, family. All is part of life, we know. Only that, in our lives we are caught off-guard by these things that happen by default. In “make-believe”, it’s possible to observe, dominate, and accommodate these feelings, and scream at the exact moment of absurdity, delirium and discomfort.

There are many groups of expression, made viable by activities connected to music and theater, exercising the improvement of communication with both the internal and external worlds. The technique, as a creative manifestation of human beings in their internal struggle, as been restored as a therapeutic practice in assisting mental health and is geared at both neurotic and psychotic disorders. Therefore, propositions are developed through practical contributions about art as therapeutic possibility. 

Obsessive processes that trigger psychophysical

On the other hand, looking at therapeutic purposes from a different standpoint, specialists, at all times, try to help those brothers who are ill, even at the early stages of their studies. Specifically, in the field of psychiatry, a few more daring scholars already related some diseases of mental and nervous origins, as being induced by Spirits; however, the prejudice at that time stopped research from being carried out. Despite the few scientific reports, there’s plenty of evidence that the process of obsession (characterized by manipulations and interpositions of toxic fluids) plays an important role in the psysio-pathogenics of disease in both physical and spiritual bodies and, in some cases, evolving to severe cases. “Obsession, of any kind, is a long-term illness, demanding specialized treatment, of safe application and long-term results.” (6) “Fluidic action of the obssesor on the brain, if not removed soon, will result in physical suffering, the longer the influence of the poisonous fluids, the deeper the suffering.” (7)

At all times in the history of civilization, there were psychopaths who suffered the nasty influence of obsessors, and, in a few cases, involving celebrities famous for their actions. Nabucodonosor II, king of the Chaldeans, suffered a lycanthropy and grazed on the palace’s garden, like an animal. Tiberius, entangled by many collector Spirits, had many slips, all filled with a lot of evil. Caligula and Genghis-Khan made themselves noticed, due to their psychotic aberrations. Nero, because of great psychiatric imbalance, among great misunderstandings, ordered the killings of mother and wife and, afterwards, he’d see them in his spiritual unfolding. Dostoiévski suffered from epileptic attacks. Nietszche wandered around institutions for the alienate. Van Gogh cut his ears in an insanity outbreak and sent them as a present to his muse, later putting an end to his life with a gunshot. Schumman, a notable composer, threw himself in the Reno, being saved by his friends and put in an asylum, where he ended his career. Edgar Allan Poe succumbed to alcohol, having visions from Hell.   

Treatment in the face of psychophysical illness 

For the treatments of psychic and mental order we corroborate with the chemical approach – sedatives, anti-depressants and drugs that act in the Central Nervous System. We consider the importance of electro-shocks – although very rarely, only in cases of difficult remission (catatonic states) or of extreme resistance to chemical therapy; psychotherapy – according to regular techniques, chosen by the therapist (allied with the notion of reincarnation, whenever possible); deep psychoanalysis – (based, whenever possible, in the diversity of existences); and, as seen above, occupational therapy – keeping the patient busy in labor that attracts his interest, as a means to keep him away from his sickening thoughts; play therapy – healthy entertainment and the cultivation of sports (gymnastics, swimming, and other types of exercises); music therapy – musical sense may be the last link that the mentally ill loses and should be fostered with care; reeducation – through permanent contact with social workers and educational lectures. Moreover, from the point of view of medical alternatives, we point out the importance of homeopathy, acupuncture and all the efforts in the direction of taking the individual on a search about life, without guilt, improving self-esteem, positive thinking and will power.

Thus, it is urgent that a spiritualist house respects the guidelines of health professionals, steering away from diagnosing, change or substitute medication or, sometimes, overrating the patient’s condition. It’s up for the medical profession, when treating patients, admitting the possibility of obsession, even if it hasn’t been proven academically, to resort to spiritualistic houses that follow the postulates of Christ and the precepts of the Spiritualistic Doctrine. Considering the outcome is not always immediate, we should not forget the importance of an honest and open dialogue with the family, mainly in order not to offer false hope or miraculous cure, but to address specific orientations, highlighting all the obstacles the case may bring.

In order to achieve a better success when treating obsessive behavior, the first step is to have an accurate diagnosis, under all aspects. Despite all efforts, sometimes it’s difficult to offer a specific diagnosis, considering the fact that the signs and symptoms are identical, as well as madness, with brain damage, as in obsessive behavior, where there is great turmoil in the transmission of thought.

To treat diseases, in general, it is fundamental to acknowledge the existence of the outer spirit. “It is through the outer spirit that the incarnated Spirit finds itself in a continuous relationship with the disincarnated. The outer spirit is Spirit’s sensitive organ, through which it perceives spiritual things that are beyond corporeal senses.” (8) “Cure happens when we substitute an unhealthy molecule for a healthy one. The healing power will operate, therefore, according to the purity of the inoculated substance; but also depends on the energy, the Will, lending it more power and penetration.”(9)  It is urgent, once again, to make clear that spiritualistic treatment, offered at a Spiritualistic House, does not overrule medical treatment. The prognosis, in general, can be good or bad, considering all the factors involved, especially the interest of the obsessed in a deep intimate transformation and the good will of the family in giving him all the possible assistance under all aspects. “The Spiritualistic Doctrine, allied to Medical Sciences, should walk hand in hand, searching for all the available resources to ease the pain of the patient.” (10) In case not, “science will end up swimming in an ocean of uncertainty, still believing that madness is all in the brain. Science needs to distinguish physical causes from moral ones, in order to apply the correct remedies”. (11) 

Therapeutics in the face of obsessive disorder 

Nowadays, there is an excellent approach to the treatment of the mentally ill which is called desobsession session. It aims at caring for the ill involved in obsessive conflict. In the case of the haunted, those reunions aim at unveiling mental and physical parasites (12). In the case of the obsessor, he will have the opportunity to show up at the sessions, where he will be taken care with lots of love, which aim at educating, so that we can understand the mistakes of his brothers and find the strength to forgive. We remind that magnetic passes, undoubtedly, play a very important role in the treatment of those brothers, providing the possibility of fluid polarization, dissipating toxic fluids and intercede with beneficial fluids. Magnetic passes may be spiritual, due to the magnetism from disincarnated brothers that participate in the processes, and humans, through the animal magnetism of the incarnated pass giver. We point out, in this context, the indisputable value of magnetized water (fluidized) – which is of great importance when rebalancing the mentally ill, for the energy coming from the irradiation of minerals, vegetables and animals. The cult of the Gospel in the home is indispensable, considering the opportunity of reading the Gospel and the reflection on its content. Besides, the prayers that can be said and allow for inner growth, as well as the exercise of faith, generating transformations at the level of renouncing low passions and improving one’s vigilance of thoughts and acts, among other benefits, that will little by little improve the Spirit. 

Bibliographical references: 

 (1) Valladares, A. C. A. (Org.) (2004). Arteterapia no novo paradigma de atenção em saúde mental. São Paulo: Vetor, p. 209

 (2) Aguiar, M. O psicodramatista fala sobre teatro espontâneo e explica por que acredita que o modelo clínico está superado. Jornal do CRP, v.16, n.106, p.3-5, 1997

 (3) A. C. A. (Org.) (2004). Arteterapia no novo paradigma de atenção em saúde mental. São Paulo: Vetor, p. 209

 (4) Fromm, E. A arte de amar. Belo Horizonte: Ed. Itatiaia, 1958

 (5) Moreno, J. L. O teatro da espontaneidade. São Paulo: Summus, 1984. p. 133-142

 (6) Franco, Divaldo Pereira. Nos Bastidores da Obsessão, Ditado pelo Espírito Manoel Philomeno de Miranda, RJ: Ed. Feb , 1995, 7a edição.

 (7) Menezes, Adolfo Bezerra de Menezes – A Loucura sob um Novo Prisma, 2ª edição, 1987, FEB-RJ

 (8) Kardec, Allan. A Gênese, RJ: Ed. Feb, 29ª edição, 1986, cap. XIV

 (9) idem

 (10) Kardec, Allan. O Evangelho Segundo o Espiritismo, 117ª edição, 1990, Instituto de Difusão Espírita - IDE, 117ª ed., cap. I, item 8

 (11) Adolfo Bezerra de Menezes – A Loucura sob um Novo Prisma, 2ª edição, 1987, FEB-RJ

 (12) Para Suely C. Schubert , “Assim, os Espíritos que se encontram muito apegados às sensações materiais prosseguem, após o túmulo, a buscar sofregamente os gozos em que se compraziam. Para usufruí-los, vinculam-se aos encarnados que vibram em faixa idêntica, instalando-se então o comércio das emoções doentias. Por outro lado, os obsessores, por vingança e ódio, ligam-se às suas vítimas com o intuito de absorver-lhes a vitalidade, enfraquecendo-as e exaurindo-as, para conseguirem maior domínio. Idêntico procedimento têm os desencarnados que se imantam aos seres que ficaram na Terra e que são os parceiros de paixões desequilibrantes. Ressalte-se que existem aqueles que, já libertos do corpo físico, ligam-se, inconscientemente, aos seres amados que permanecem na crosta terrestre, mas sem o desejo de fazer o mal. E, mesmo entre os encarnados, pessoas existem que vivem permanentemente sugando as forças de outros seres humanos, que se deixam passivamente dominar. Essa dominação não fica apenas adstrita à esfera física, mas (...) intensifica-se durante as horas de sono. Quando mais profunda for esta sintonia maior será a vampirização. Em qualquer dos casos configura-se perfeitamente a parasitose espiritual (...) Também aqueles que se aproveitam do trabalho alheio - em regime de quase escravidão - pagando a essas criaturas salários de fome, que as colocam em condições subumanas, exercem, de certa forma, a parasitose".