What should we do when facing a serious illness?

Our collaborator in the area of ​​translations and writer Eleni Frangatos, in the article entitled "Spiritual treatment and traditional medical treatment", has opportune considerations on the question that gives title to this text. Her article is one of the highlights of this edition.

The inspiration for the article was the news of the passing of well-known presenter and journalist Marcelo Rezende. As reported in the press, suffering from pancreatic cancer and no cure conditions, he would have refused treatment through chemotherapy, after undergoing the first session and feeling its effects. Marcelo Rezende would then have, as it turned out, sought an alternative treatment without any success.

The writer - who was also affected by cancer and is cured - wrote at the end of her article:

"I conclude by emphasizing that anyone with a serious illness needs to seek the specialist, yes, and follow their guidance. According to your belief and faith, you can and should, yes, seek spiritual support for such a difficult time as this. One will complement the other, no doubt."

Nothing more logical and correct, because earthly medicine exists precisely because of this, and it is precisely to attend to the problems affecting the health issue among us, incarnates, which doctors and nurses study so much.

When a person belittles what medical science offers us and seeks other ways, the result is usually disastrous and can lead to the death of the individual, as Divaldo Franco narrated and Raul Teixeira reported in answer to a question that he was asked:

"Our Divaldo, in due course, told us an episode he knew about a citizen who suffered from intense and continuous headache was 'conducted' by someone irresponsible to 'develop', because he was a medium, and in that he would find the expected cure.

Wanted nuclei of mediumship without Christian guidance, done the 'works', etc. the problem has not subsided; on the contrary, it has got worsened. After frustrated attempts there and there, the young man was taken to a serious institution, where the servant of the mediumship who attended him found, through the information of the Spiritual Benefactors, that the family should provide medical care for the young man.

Once the electroencephalogram was done, there was a brain tumor that could not be cured because of the advanced state of the problem." (Safety Guidelines, question 96)

Even when the question is clearly of a spiritual origin, such as the obsessions, which can be perfectly treated in the environment of the Spirit institution, using the resources proposed by Spiritism, earthly medicine should not and cannot be ignored. Anyone who knows the Spirit Doctrine knows what Allan Kardec wrote about it:

"Curing serious obsessions requires a lot of patience, perseverance, and devotion. It also requires tact and skill in order to direct spirits that are often perverse, hardened and cunning, because they are rebellious in the extreme.

In most cases, we have to be guided by circumstances. Whatever the character of the Spirit, however, nothing is attained this is an indisputable fact of constraint or threat. All influence resides in the moral ascendant. Another truth equally proven by experience as well as by logic it is the complete ineffectiveness of exorcisms, formulas, sacramental words, amulets, talismans, exterior practices, or any material signs.

Prolonged obsession can lead to pathological disorders and sometimes it is necessary simultaneous or consecutive treatment, both magnetic and medical, to restore the health of the body. When the cause is destroyed, we must combat the effects." (The Gospel according to Spiritism, chapter XXVIII, n.84, final note). [We put in bold]