These are procedures that aim to heal the spirit and, indirectly, the body. Spiritists believe that the physical body is associated with the perispirit – a kind of aura formed by unknown chemical elements that only exist in the spiritual plane. Diseases would be reflections of perispiritual alterations, caused by moral imbalances. That is, to cure them, the perispirit is healed. For this purpose, a medium embodies the spirit of a doctor and assumes the treatment. As the spiritist doctrine does not have homologated and regulated practices, the surgical techniques vary according to the medium and the spiritist center. Some do not even touch the patient, others use crystals and there are even those who make incisions with surgical devices.
medium duty
Some Brazilian spiritual hospitals perform up to 800 operations per day
FIRST CONSULTATION
In a private conversation with the medium, the patient reveals what ails him: from tumors to inexplicable body pains. The diagnosis is made according to the teachings of the doctrine. Here the treatment is determined: in simpler cases, a change in diet and lifestyle is recommended. Surgery, only in severe cases
FREE PASS
The pass is the “transmission of beneficial spiritual fluids” carried out by mediums. The medium passes his hands before or above the people to be healed. It can also be done by looking, blowing and even from a distance – without the patient present – by mental irradiation. The pass that precedes the surgery is collective
HANDS-ON
Hand operations are the most common. The medium embodies the spirit of a doctor, who may be foreign or renowned, such as Osvaldo Cruz. Then he places his hands on the patient, touching him or not, to transfer spiritual fluids to the diseased organ. The surgery takes a few minutes
THERE IS A MEDICINE
Ointments, drops, pills and homeopathic lotions complement the treatment. They are indicated before surgery, for a period of four weeks, and after, at rest, for 15 days. According to the spiritist doctrine, nothing should be charged in the centers, but in some cases the patients pay – and expensive! – for the medications
SPIRITUAL DOCTOR
To be a surgeon, the medium must be a student of spiritism and have an innate ability to incorporate spirits. In most spiritual hospitals, the medium wears a lab coat and stethoscope, and patients are on stretchers. In simpler centers, the mediums operate wearing ordinary clothes and with the patients standing
MAGIC STONES
Small crystals can be rubbed or left to rest on the patient’s body. Although the use of any cult objects, including crystals, is condemned by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation, it is very common to find mediums who operate using crystals and even specialize in the technique.
RISK PROCEDURE
You will hardly find a medium who confesses to performing surgeries with a scalpel. But it happens, yes. The process is the same as touch surgery, but several surgical devices come into play, without anesthesia! From quick incisions to remove tumors to corneal scraping to cure cataracts
LEGAL ASSESSMENT
In the eyes of Brazilian law, spiritual surgery can lead to jail
The Brazilian Penal Code can frame supporters of spiritual surgery. Article 282 condemns the illegal practice of medicine and 283 condemns advertisements for cures by “a secret or infallible method”. 284 provides for condemnation for witchcraft, “using gestures, words or any other means”, and “making diagnoses”. In practice, accusations against spiritists are rare and convictions even more so.
CLINICAL EVALUATION
Medical community divided over spiritual surgery
Studies that indicate fraud in invasive spiritual surgeries, with fake blood and tissue removed, share space with records of real tissue removal. Although there are patients who do not feel pain and do not develop infections after the operation, traditional doctors interpret this as autosuggestion effects – as if the patients’ minds were conditioned to it.
• In some centers, the operation is done in the dark; in others, there is help from “nurses”, who write down what the spirit says during the operation
• The medium Zé Arigó performed several invasive surgeries during the 50’s and 60’s, embodying the spirit of “Dr. Fritz”
CONSULTING Spiritist Center Lázara Conceição and Marta Antunes de Moura, director of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation SOURCES Spiritual Surgery: An Investigation, by AM de Almeida, TM de Almeida, AM Gollner; Brazilian Penal Code; https://www.febnet.org.br