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to Spiritists, optimal wellbeing is ours when we are (1) doing the mission that we agreed to do before coming into this life and (2) treating ourselves and others with compassion consistently. If we lose our way and cannot steer ourselves to the goal of why we were born, then we may become despondent and need time out to get back on course. Our spiritual guardians (always represented by positive, life-affirming messages) are ever with us to help us remember why we are here. They are part of our inner circle, the “still, small voice within” that helps guide us whenever we quiet enough to enter the silence and listen humbly to their advice.

      Emotional extremes can arise when we meet one or more experiences on the high seas of life that are traumatic or highly challenging. Emotional extremes can also arise out of a passion for one’s life purpose—an absolute need to write, compose music, do research, figure something out, etc. Either or both of these can influence us in the direction of not eating, sleeping, getting adequate exercise, or enjoying the nurturing that comes from being in nature.

      A Spiritist considers that pervasive and long-lasting mental imbalance that threatens life may come because a person is rebalancing him or herself after a life experience that was not compassionate or may come from having lost his/her purpose in life. What needs to happen? The “unbalanced” person needs to find out what was done in the past without love and compassion, balance the books, and/or discover the life purpose that must be fulfilled and get about doing it.

      Laurence Kirmayer is director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Transcultural Psychiatry Journal. He believes:

      “Americans are unique both in being willing to openly express distressful emotions and feelings to strangers and in our penchant for viewing psychological suffering as a health care issue…[Whereas people] in other cultures find social and moral meaning in such internal distress, they often seek relief exclusively from family members or community elders or local spiritual leaders.”

      --Laurence Kirmayer, MD (in Watters, 2010, p. 196)

      How does a Spiritist proceed? If it is possible: meditation and prayer may provide the needed insight and energy to right what needs righting, or recommit to the mission to be achieved. If that quiet work is out of reach:, highly-trained (clairvoyant) sensitives (also called mediums in Brazil) may be consulted to apprehend the origin of the problems and ways to rectify imbalances. In either case, those firmly grounded in Spiritism can help with prayers, blessed water, and energy work to clear the individual’s physical- and subtle-energy pathways of unwanted debris. This clears the mind and balances emotions.

      Doing this clearing in a positive energy field of a Spiritist group at a Spiritist Community Center maximizes the positive effects in the same way a fuel additive can make regular gasoline burn more cleanly and effectively.

      In addition, group and individual psychotherapy may also be used. (Psychiatric medications are used as needed, but typically not used on an ongoing basis as readily as we do in the USA.)

      To continue with the analogy of navigating the ocean: the rebalancing helps clear the decks that have been swamped by large waves, awakens the navigator, and rights the ship. We might call this extraordinary healing because some it is done through nonphysical agents: guardian spirits, clairvoyant sensitives who can see into our past lives, and the inner knowing of the deep resources of our own heart. These are beyond the reach of the physical sciences, which may treat through medication and electroshock, and analysis of genetic factors. The rebalancing may also bring individuals into states of consciousness that are extraordinary, where they awaken deeper resources of love, vision, and connection to God, as well as their own healing abilities.

      Safety Rings for Those Needing Help

      If you are currently feeling adrift, out to sea, and/or amidst waves that seem too big for your skill or craft, and you are tired and in need of extra support:

      In Brazil, there are more than 12,000 Spiritist Community Centers available that offer free help to those with modest psychological issues. There are also 50 Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals offering an integrated approach to serious mental disturbances that includes psychiatric drugs, psychotherapy and Spiritist treatments by mediums and healers.

      Two of the best groups to assist you in the USA if you do not have financial resources are The Icarus Project (www.theicarusproject.net) and the Freedom Center (www.freedom-center.org). Two of the Freedom’s Center’s goals are to support effective alternatives, such as nutrition, exercise, holistic healthcare, nature, and animals and to provide voluntary, non-paternalistic social supports such as peer-run programs, housing, a modest amount of spending money, and individual and family therapy.

      Some supportive groups in the USA are listed in the back of this book under “Supportive Organizations.” The book Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry (2007) lists resources for support groups and individual counselors. In the United Kingdom a good resource is MIND, (http://www.mind.org.uk).

      To explore what Spiritism has to offer, look into the US Spiritist Council for a list of Spiritist Centers in the United States: http://www.spiritist.us/spiritist-centers/. Those outside the US can visit the International Spiritist Council: http://www.intercei.com.

      What This Book Offers

      We endeavor to consider mental imbalance as a wake-up call to rebalance the system: recognize we are off course, right the course, and reorient; thus it is, a psychological crisis rooted in the life of the spirit. The healing process may include righting our values and addressing meaning and purpose. However, we do not yet have many resources in the US that can address mental disturbance as a spiritual issue with spiritual treatments. This book, and coming new editions, will attempt to stay abreast of what we can do as “consumers” looking for that kind of assistance.

      The first section, “Who Needs It?” gives context, starting with the prevalence of people diagnosed with mental illness in the USA. We begin by telling stories about people who are living through extreme states and stories of people who are looking after family members in extreme states. These stories help us reflect on the varieties of treatments, the outcomes people experience, and the paths to recovery. We further define integrative medicine to assist us in making steps towards working with the best treatments there are for the physical, psychosocial and spiritual problems we face. Selene Almeida, a Brazilian medical doctor and clairvoyant, shares spiritual guidance she received about the nature of mental illness and mental health. She represents a growing number of doctors in Brazil who are also spiritual healers.

      The second section, “Spiritism in Brazil,” reveals how Spiritists work in Brazil. The components of spiritual treatment at a Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital are defined so that the reader can envision an integrative model that draws from conventional biochemically-based medicine and spiritual diagnostics and treatment, including prayer, meditation, peer support, classes, blessed water, and consultations with sensitives (clairvoyant mediums). The Spiritual Hospital of the Casa de Dom Inacio provides a different model that centers on the work of mediums, psychic surgery and longer meditation sessions. Selene Almeida, MD writes about her use of flower and mineral essences. Many private practitioners in Brazil, like Dr. Almeida, are grounded in Spiritist philosophy, and they also use spiritual therapies stemming from Europe and the Far East, as well as their own research. Practitioners at a Spiritist day treatment program for those struggling with addiction, in a Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital in Curitiba, Brazil, details how patient motivation to change can be assessed and encouraged. This hospital also invites paraprofessionals into the hospital to assist patients in their healing.

      The third section, “Resources in the USA,” addresses what we have in the USA that is in harmony with the Spiritist approach but is not Spiritist in name. These resources

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