Spiritism and Mental Health: Practices from Spiritist Centers and Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals in Brazil

A large national poll found that almost 50 percent of patients would like to share in prayer with their physicians during medical office visits (Yankelovich Partners Inc. 1996).

Almost 80 percent of individuals who seek medical care for any reason feel that their religious or spiritual beliefs are directly related to their health concerns,

In spite of compelling evidence to the contrary, we continue to treat symptoms as if they are caused by a “broken brain” in which deficiencies or “imbalances” of serotonin and other neurotransmitters are regarded by modern psychiatry as sufficient explanations of mental illness.

Fifty Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals in Brazil

Functional brain imaging studies suggest that deep meditative states achieved through yoga and other spiritual practices are associated with metabolic changes in brain regions involved in sustained attention

“Soul Medicine”

Research on the long-term effects of psychiatric medications reported by the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health in 1996 reveal that they compromise brain function rather than enhance it (Hyman 1996).

Ivan Hervé, MD (2006), reported about 181 cases he tracked for 20 years of treatment at a Spiritist Center in Porto Alegre, giving a description of their disorders and the results achieved.

one out of eight adults in the USA