17th US Spiritist Symposium | Session Four

Society of Baltimore Maryland originally from Philadelphia Kirsten was born to his spiritist parents and later relocated to Maryland in 2011 she has been very involved with the spiritist movement having participated in events like the spiritist medical Congress and various spiritist symposiums across the United States let's welcome Kirsten to the stage and last but not least with an impeccable Chase in fashion I'm going to invite Susanna moas is an active member of the spiritist movement Susanna has worked as a member of the spiritist Federation of Florida and United States spiritist Federation she is one of the founders of the conscious living spiritist group in Miami along with Andrea uh and she works primarily overseeing the work in English she is an active speaker in the United States and abroad please welcome Susanna to the stage now we were starting off we were all having our little discussion um before coming here today and we were talking about how we were going to take a look at the the world in distress and taking it from three interesting points of view uh how in in many ways it came into being a little bit of Charles Dickens uh A Christmas Carol because we have we're going to talk a bit about the past present and future and uh so I'm going to start with our uh spiritist of the past as it were pardon my back jokes it's my call sign uh Andrea thank you Brian thank you for the warm welcome um the admiration and uh fraternity is equal to you I also admire you as well as these panelist here I would like to also welcome the United States spiritist Federation for the invitation I would also like to congratulate for the very well organized event that we are participating in it's truly truly nice to see um how it's turning out in another new state that we get to meet uh and also meeting new faces as well as seeing old friends once again it's truly a pleasure um I would like to start with question 793 of the spirits book because as you can tell our presentation is

uh and also meeting new faces as well as seeing old friends once again it's truly a pleasure um I would like to start with question 793 of the spirits book because as you can tell our presentation is going to be based on taking action to heal a world in distress um and I just would like to let you guys know I am not a psychologist uh so I would like to invoke the the powerful presences of Alan card and the greatest psychotherapist that has ever been Among Us Jesus and so I will start with question 693 of the spirit's book in which Alan kardak ask by what sign May one recognize a completed civilization and the answer you will recognize it by its moral development alanc goes on to comment on it's a short answer that I actually I summarized it but there's a lot more so if you don't have the book make sure that you do get it uh at the ussf table so that you can read a little bit further on the answer but Al lanard de comments on this and he says of two cultures that have reached the summit of the social scale the one that may be called the more advanced in the true sense of the word is the one where the least selfishness cupidity and pride are found where the Customs are more intellectual and moral than material where intelligence can develop with more freedom where there is more kindness good faith and reciprocal benevolence and generosity where the prejudices of cast and birth are less rooted for such Prejudice are incompatible with truth true love for one's neighbor where the laws do not Grant any special privileges and are the same for the last as for the first where Justice is administered with the least partiality where the weak always finds support against the strong where human life beliefs and opinions are better respected where there are fewer unhappy individuals and lastly where persons of Goodwill are always sure they will not lack the minimum of what is needed to live on this comment by Alan kardak is sufficient to answer the main topic for this panel how can we take action to

sons of Goodwill are always sure they will not lack the minimum of what is needed to live on this comment by Alan kardak is sufficient to answer the main topic for this panel how can we take action to heal a world in distress it's here the recipe is right here but it's not as easy right we're going to go the spirit of spirit is past right yeah so I'm I'm going to go back in time it's important that when we start considering this we start thinking about our Master Jesus A lot of people are not yet acquainted with the teachings of spiritism but very few can say they haven't heard about Jesus right I would say that and even more about the message of love and fraternity and even further when he would heal people the healing that was of physical emotional and spiritual bringing the balance needed for one to live in harmony he would always point out a very specific phrase who knows that if you know it you get a book for free even if there's a little of paper underneath your come on what would he say whenever he healed someone who J and Jan can't answer what what what was that very well go and sin no more or go and don't do it again right he was addressed in the past that brought the person to the present but it was an uplifting message it was not filled with judgment he was basically saying whatever brought this on don't do it again here's a new opportunity for you to start again and it's very profound and impacting and perhaps this is why Jan who was mentioned so much uh earlier today and as well as she should be she stated in the book life challenges and solutions Pardon Me Jesus in our days she would say we urgently need to bring Christ back not a crucified figure but one represented by a true friend a doctor a master psychother therapist of our souls so when we started thinking about this and and um brainstorming on how would we bring the topic today I decided uh to type try to bring this aspect of looking to the past to see how we can take action to heal a world in

thinking about this and and um brainstorming on how would we bring the topic today I decided uh to type try to bring this aspect of looking to the past to see how we can take action to heal a world in distress and then passing on the Bon to to pierc then and so this is why I wanted to bring Jesus exactly where we are kardak comes a few hundred years later to bring his spiritism which is the third Revelation and symbolizes Jesus walking Among Us once again inviting us to be a little kinder to ourselves to be less judgmental of our mistakes and others as well to reflect upon his teachings in such a way that we are able to apply it in modern days our history our world is going through one of the most important aspects when we consider the law of progress and how far we have come at this time when he proposes that we should strive to seek to build the Kingdom of Heaven of God inside our heart he was symbolically speaking about something very specific we look at a world in distress which is not aligned with the kingdom of God would you agree it doesn't really make a lot of sense when we're looking at it am I supposed to keep talking five more minutes okay no wait five more minutes that's what we agreed to that's fine so J J when she's bringing this analysis and reflection of Jesus in the book light in the darkness she stated IM morally Dark Night covers the earth this stress dominates the human landscape where is Humanity Humanity leaded I can't answer that in five minutes right I can't but we can personally do a review of how we've been living and why our world is in reality in distress does it have to do with individuals with people like me like you that have had a past right not only this life but previous reincarnations and we look at ourselves as the summary of all that we've been of all that we've done and many of us consider the fact that the best mistakes the things that we have made are failures or that we carry within this guilt that whether it's not reflected on something that happened in

done and many of us consider the fact that the best mistakes the things that we have made are failures or that we carry within this guilt that whether it's not reflected on something that happened in this life Perhaps it is found in a previous existence and it is actually emerging as an opportunity for us to take a deep look utilizing the opportunity of reincarnation that we have at hand to work out the knot that which is still bringing pain disharmony and balance in every possible way spiritually physically emotionally which is why we are talking about this topic today so we need to be objective we thought about the great characters in the gospels that we've so come to admire Paul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus saw Christ inviting him to seek another objective of living Mary of Magdalene after encountering him left that Madness of living behind zakus the love uh tax collector who after meeting Christ also took a way of living that was completely different from what he was living but what if they had St in their steps considering they have just met the most perfect being on the earth and said oh my God I am so filled with remorse I'm not going to be able to go forward and in a letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians chapter 3: 13-4 he left us with that invaluable tip he said brothers and sisters I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it but one thing I do forgetting what is behind and straining forward towards what is ahead I press on toward the gold to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Jesus Christ basically he's telling us not to look back as at past failed relationships or rather experiences that brought us to where we are Memories the type of temptations that took us to where maybe mistakes were made to stop dwelling so much on what happened and rather you use it utilize it to make an impact today in seeking spiritual path to mental balance in taking action to heal a world in distress one of the main teachings of Jesus was mentioned

pened and rather you use it utilize it to make an impact today in seeking spiritual path to mental balance in taking action to heal a world in distress one of the main teachings of Jesus was mentioned today earlier was love your neighbor as yourself as yourself there is a lot of people not feeling love for themselves and to finalize I would like to leave you with a phrase from Martin Luther King very impactful that perhaps summarizes how we can take action to heal a world World in distress while we are healing ourselves from past mistakes he stated on the parable of the Good Samaritan I imagined that the first question the priest and the levite asked was if I sought to help this man what will happen to me but by the very nature of his concern the Good Samaritan reversed the question he said if I do not stop to help this man what will happen to him thank you so much bringing this bringing us forward to the presence we will now bring the floor to Kirsten well good after noon everyone um thank you all for being here and it's an honor to be here and amongst my esteemed colleagues um I kind of wanted to you know we we did spend a good amount of time preparing this and having discussions and ruminating about this topic it's such an important topic mental health as it relates to spirituality and obviously under the guise of spiritism when you think about death and you think about a loved one dying now bear with me here you might be like I'm going to talking about death in this panel hold on just stay with me for a second okay when we talk about death or we think about you know older generation older people dying you know of this disease or that disease you don't often think or we don't often realize that one of the number one Killers is not heart disease it's not cancer those are in the top 10 top five one of the top Killers which is been increasing in our world suicide so tell me that mental health is not important and we can show you statistics who here is familiar with the story of

op 10 top five one of the top Killers which is been increasing in our world suicide so tell me that mental health is not important and we can show you statistics who here is familiar with the story of the prodical son anybody two people three four five come on people come on oh I see about a third wave them high be proud all right you what happened with the prodigal son he took all his dad's money he spent all of it and then eventually he came back right but nobody ever talks about how long it took for him to come back why is that it took him a while even after he had gone blew through his dad's money his whole inheritance you would think why didn't he just go back that would have loved him and taken him back sooner but there is a a few key components that much like the prodical son is in us as well that we suffer from anybody you know what that might be pride and what else guilt shame one more right there ego oh yeah good shame and guilt it keeps us from going being like that product Sun getting back on the straight narrow and a very important aspect I'm going to show this book here in a second a very important aspect when we talk about the title of today's panel how do we take action because the reality is we know that there's a tremendous amount of suffering what do we do what do we do so I think I speak for the the panel here when I say that we are not far removed from anyone else on this panel we too have walked through literal hell on Earth through Darkness have experienced that firsthand and what that feels like and what it feels like to be a spiritist to be a Christian and to not be able to combat that Darkness with all the knowledge you have in the world what comes with that guilt shame lots of shame that holds us back Joanna says and I don't know how many of her books that are out there times of health and conscientiousness existential conflicts which is outside to purchase so many of her books as well as I have to mention the notable Dr breny Brown who Sue and I have a fond love of her

es of health and conscientiousness existential conflicts which is outside to purchase so many of her books as well as I have to mention the notable Dr breny Brown who Sue and I have a fond love of her her research on shame and how looking at that how important it is for us to acknowledge especially as spiritists as Christians to say and acknowledge as my friend Dan Sissi yesterday call a spade a spade call it what it is we all fall short we are all prodigal children every single one of us and so Andrea you mentioned something when you were talking what if you know the disciples who also committed you know wrongdoings what if they would have given up What if Paul would have been like I murdered too many people what if he just gave up we wouldn't have the Saul who turned Paul but you know someone did give up someone who to this day in history even within Christianity who we don't often talk about that we vilify Judas he could not face what he had done often times the story that we're told is that Jesus that Judas gave Jesus up he was a traitor if you read in the book b NOA or good news you learn that Judas in his mind he thought he knew more than Jesus he said I'm gonna get I'm gonna do some PR work for Christ I'm gonna get him known but that backfired and when he realized what he had done he could not come to terms with it and he took his life how do we come to terms with our Darkness simple simple I'm going to tell you what it is it's extremely difficult pardon my French damn near impossible but possible is to face ourselves in the Gospel According to spiritism there's a chapter entitled or sub chapter entitled obedience and resignation when you walk through hell you will learn your faced with two choices you learn to submit not in the submission where we are giving up but a submission to this higher power to not be afraid of the darkness but to face it headon to look at the darkness like it is a teacher that I didn't know that I needed that I've spent my whole life

but a submission to this higher power to not be afraid of the darkness but to face it headon to look at the darkness like it is a teacher that I didn't know that I needed that I've spent my whole life running from but now is oh knocking knocking on my door saying I'm ready for you come on I'm ready for you come on and what do we do no I don't want it OB obedience resignation accepting what is is that my time accepting there's no way out of our Darkness but through it there's no way and what is astounding if there's anyone in this room who's ever walked through something really dark dark and if you have been able to come out the other side you will I promise you I promise you you will be amazed with the strength that Jesus gives us that God gives us when we stop to pray and we always say that in the spirit's book they say if we pray they give us spiritual CPR who knows how to do CPR in this room wow oh gosh wow that's great I feel so I'm in a good plot um so if you're ever in a if you're ever in a bad spot and you need some spiritual CPR pray because the spirits book says the good and Noble Spirits say we will give you courage we will give you patience and resignation because they cannot take away our Darkness we are meant to walk through it and we are so trained into running is a def it's a defense mechanism Joanna talks about this in one of her books defense mechanisms of the ego uh Dr anay was talking about it earlier today it's a it's a natural right there's fire your hand retracts back but now is the time when pain comes a knocking on our door not to run so if I can recommend one last thing in my last minute and 30 seconds there's there's so many books and and there's so many wonderful spiritist books we always recommend the cific the five pillars of spiritism the Gospel the spirit's book mediums book Genesis Heaven and Hell there's a lot of other books J the Joanna d'angela series as well is really good but there's 's one book that for personally and forgive

e Gospel the spirit's book mediums book Genesis Heaven and Hell there's a lot of other books J the Joanna d'angela series as well is really good but there's 's one book that for personally and forgive me for the personal there that I felt is underrated still yet and needs to be studied more alongside Joanna's books alongside so many books really but if you experience mental health issues you know someone that experiences mental health issues you've experienced it a loved one has whatever the issue is or you simply just want to to know more this book psychiatric and spirit Obsession disorders is lifechanging the information that they share so friends if I can tell you one last thing never give up there is hope thank you very much always here soon it's funny because you I remember we were talking about the same subject just you and me uh on our own little personal chat and you also recommended that same book to me a couple months ago and I know it's on my list of things to read uh but it has been something I remember because it is it is an issue that is widely ranged but uh hopefully we can uh see a path forward into the future here so Susanna give us hope give us lay us down the path I will do my best so so thank you both for a great start and Thea brought to us the role of the past in mental health issues and I think highlights to us the importance of forgiveness I think ksten talk about this very incredible barrier that we have in our societies unfortunately although we have done tremendous amount of progress with mental health and breaking the stigma how many of us is truly comfortable in sharing our darkness in sharing our darkness in our spiritual centers without the fear of being seen as weak or what's wrong with you or where is your faith so so it's important that we talk about this it's important that we take action and there is action that each one of us must take the action is to continue to disseminate the spiritism and the action is to develop an awareness that mental health issues is

tant that we take action and there is action that each one of us must take the action is to continue to disseminate the spiritism and the action is to develop an awareness that mental health issues is not something that someone else has is very much part of our Humanity I would like to remind all of us that we live in a planet of Trials and expiations and in the gospel chapter 3 we are told that this planet is a hospital so I like to joke that none of us is in our very right mind in this planet so perhaps part of the beginning of this conversation is to equalize things and make less about others and more about all of us spiritism brings a incredible contribution to the issue of mental health when it comes to giving us the perspective of the future which Daniel talk about when he talk about the immortality and what is really uh what is really special about it is because there are many other philosophies that do believe in the future but but this future is is very fuzzy it's abstract and spiritism offer us a future that is something that we can lean on an idea of a concrete future so much of our anxiety comes from uncertainty from from questions that we have so it's important to to know what is in this future so that we can take the first action which is along with forgiveness with selflove it is to study it is to understand who we are and what is that is ahead of us so I want to build a very beautiful cathedral and so spiritism offers us some really um important bricks in this construction and in the understanding of the future so it gives puts life into this much broader perspective whereas now we understand that we existed before coming here we are here in the present moment and there's so much that we can do addressing our our minds our issues without embarrassment with less guilt but looking into the future we understand that there is a future there is continuity there is a tomorrow waiting for us and that today today we are our very best version ever and tomorrow we are going to be

oking into the future we understand that there is a future there is continuity there is a tomorrow waiting for us and that today today we are our very best version ever and tomorrow we are going to be even a better version of we are today because together with the idea of future what spiritism offers us which is such a powerful and consoling soothing idea is the idea of progress we are always progressing and so if today you find yourself struggling if today you find yourself in the middle of a crisis just know that this crisis does not define you it's just a moment and it is the law that things progress that things pass the better days come come so not only your dark moment does not define you it is just that it is a moment and it is a moment that is Rich a lot of times we see darkness and crisis as being the end ifs like that it may not be able to feel like this is a really good version of myself because of the trou of the mind but believe me it is in the darkness it is in the gist of the crisis the lies the absolute best resources for your awareness and for your healing and transformation a lot of times we Envy the one who is in peace but when crisis Heats our beings being shaken and we are being invited to take action life tells us hey it's time to take action so crisis is a door of opportunity for us to actually take a step forward into awareness and into our own transformation with this whole idea of immortality and this whole idea of a future we also understand that there is a God that there is a law that is carefully think about a father a mother and a toddler how the toddler is learning to walk and the parents are around kind of guiding that toddler so that he will find or walk straight the same thing happening to each one of us God is doing just that the law is doing just that so action number one is to study about those things is to understand the purpose of life is to understand what the future holds for us is to listen in the depths of our minds The Words of

ng just that so action number one is to study about those things is to understand the purpose of life is to understand what the future holds for us is to listen in the depths of our minds The Words of Christ saying and talking to us in so many ways about the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Heaven is a fatality the Kingdom of Heaven is our final destination no matter how troubled you are right now it is God's will that you experience the Kingdom of Heaven meaning Health meaning abundance meaning inner peace and this whole idea that is spiritism brings to us this Paradigm of immortality gives us something very important in any crisis mental health issues as well which is Hope and someone did talk about Hope earlier on hope is the fuel and is a very important resource for resilience and for healing it's hard to heal without hope hope is something that we have to have in ourselves and also hope in the future whether we're talking about the next minute whether we're talking about the next day or the next life but it is hope that's going to get us up every morning and and to continue to press forward towards the future now the journey between the present moment and this future is going to be difficult nobody ever said that would be easy it is difficult because we remain in our stage of evolution still deeply disconnected from The Source from the essence of who we are from God and no matter how much we believe those things no matter how much we know we will falter we will have our moments of darkness and difficulty and so Paul writes to Ephesians and gives the Ephesians in knowing the difficulties and the struggles a very good advice which I'll share with you he says therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and ask after you have done everything to stand stand firm then with the Bel of Truth Buckle around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with you Fe FedEd with the Readiness

d and ask after you have done everything to stand stand firm then with the Bel of Truth Buckle around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with you Fe FedEd with the Readiness that comes from the gospel of peace in addition to all of these take up the shield of Faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one take the helmet of salvation in the sword of the spirit which is the word of God so spiritism does that for us it helps us to stand our ground we might be broken we might be shattered we might be bent but the idea of the future the idea of the immortality allows us to stand firm in face of all the challenges that we face he also speaks about the evil that we have to face nowadays we understand these evil as being our unattended wounds our shadows our Frey and he recommends to put on this Armor of God I wish we could talk about each one of the pieces but we don't have time nor I know what my time is anymore but it doesn't matter because I will go over a few minutes so it's a good thing that the thing went up so in any case he talks about putting up the helmet of salvation and I was struck by the statistics as uh was mentioned earlier today with the placebo effect for healing I actually went to look it up and it talks about how powerful our minds is and here is Paul telling us to take action by putting the helmet of salvation by caring for our mind minds and for our thoughts we have to remember that the mind is where our psychic environment is formed based on the thoughts that we're emitting and it's also where our relationships start because depending on the vibration that we are emitting we are attracting incarnates and discarnates to be part of our day-today life when we think about mental health we cannot discard the role that obsessive processes may have in enhancing the symptoms and the difficulties so protecting the Mind means nurturing our thoughts with altruistic with good content it means elevating our vibration

that obsessive processes may have in enhancing the symptoms and the difficulties so protecting the Mind means nurturing our thoughts with altruistic with good content it means elevating our vibration it means taking action and whenever you feel like you can't handle it do a prayer open that window of connection with the higher Spirits meditate take care of the hygiene of your mind in the same way and with the same care that you do the hygiene of your body and as you take care of your mind you will notice that little by little you're going to start also changing the network of people that are daytoday with you some people will go and some new people will come setting this space and and the better environment for a healthier future and finally take the shield of faith if hope Emmanuel says in the book called The consolate that hope is the light of the moon in the darkest of the nights but faith is the sun is the light of the sun this morning as I review this small talk I was sitting on a desk and I saw the sun rising behind the screen of the computer and I thought to myself this is fake it's to know that although we might be experienced tremendous amount of Darkness the sun will rise we always rise no matter what and sometimes all that is asked from us is to be patient wait just a little bit more hanging there because there is a future and faith is the moment where although we know everything and part of the problem that we face in our Humanity that we partially know we know intellectually but we don't know yet wholeheartedly about all those things that I'm talking about but if you are in the darkness hanging there faith is when our cognition can no longer save us and we go down on our knees and we recognize that we can't do it alone and we reach out to the person next to us and we reach out to God who is the one that can grant us the power that can grant us the love to feel as Daniel said that we truly belong that there is a purpose for leaving and that help us to choose to

we reach out to God who is the one that can grant us the power that can grant us the love to feel as Daniel said that we truly belong that there is a purpose for leaving and that help us to choose to live thank you talking about your little lecture here with the armor and stuff like that and I I know for me personally has been War buff myself I remember that the failinks for the Greeks when they lock Shields lock Shields of Faith together with other people you become stronger and it was something that I've noticed too especially like as I discussed in our intro I've gained so much strength and support from you and you've been from other centers same with my old centers that I've I've been with and part of it amazing how much the spirit's Community can come together when you are in need for a variety of different reasons this time is mental health but it has been a an open spot as mentioned a hospital but it is a place to come when you are in need and I have found warmth I have found a home coming to a spirit Center whenever I'm in trouble and this is something that like I says this is a topic I know for me personally I'm taking this one very personal and it's something that uh like I say the spirit Center has been there for me to help me and the topics that you've brought here today have also been very wonderful and helpful for me so I thank you so much for being here as part of this panel and I thank you all for having us here today thank you to all the panelists very much if you are moved touching Spire grab your hand and touch your heart yeah there you go that's where it lives thank you let's take a few moments now to watch a video presentation scripted scripted by Dr Sonia doy currently the president of the US spiritist Medical Association a nonprofit educational organization that supports and advances the Paradigm of Integrative Medicine and spirituality focusing on treatment approaches that champion the body Minds Spirit concept the SMI us proposes a new approach to Health Care based on the

vances the Paradigm of Integrative Medicine and spirituality focusing on treatment approaches that champion the body Minds Spirit concept the SMI us proposes a new approach to Health Care based on the spiritual principles of spiritism Let's watch it the world is constant ly changing some changes are gradual and take so long that are hardly noticed but others are more abrupt and affect all its inhabitants like the Corona virus pandemic that we all recently experienced technological advances have shortened distances in time in consequence whatever happens on one side of the world affects the other side almost immediately as part of a global Community we are constantly challenged to deal with situations that may cause fear uncertainty or other concerns that adds up to our daily burdens most times we are unprepared to control our emotions and sentiments and even without noticing these situations impact our mental in physical health as the level of stress becomes higher than what the individual can handle and if there are no supporting systems despair hopelessness set in leading to depression and in the worst case scenario suicide a report from the CDC published in August 202 23 states that suicide is one of the leading cause in the US a total of 48,1 183 individuals died by suicide in 20121 on average one person in the US dies from suicide about every 11 minutes suicidal people are crying for help for support for someone who cares evidence from scientific research has shown that the rate of suicide is lower in individuals who declare themselves religious or spiritual who have some sort of Faith this result May derive from the fact that individuals who believe in a superior power find support in their faith and or in their spiritual group to resist suicidal ideations however understanding that life and tribulations do not end with death of the body plays an essential role in this decisive moment spiritism explaining the spirit life the law of cause and effect reincarnation as a learning process for

tribulations do not end with death of the body plays an essential role in this decisive moment spiritism explaining the spirit life the law of cause and effect reincarnation as a learning process for evolution clarifies educates and gives support providing hope and consolation spiritism helps to understand the causes of suffering and provides the resources to find strength courage and confidence the United States spiritist Medical Association or SMA us is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that gives voice to scientists healthc Care Professionals to communicate their knowledge and experience in spirituality applied to health based on the principles of spiritism the SMA us brings science and spirituality together with the mission to educate healthc Care Professionals and support research on the impact of the spirit soul in physical and mental health a number of recognized professionals have presented lectures and participated in scientific discussions including Dr Harold kig Dr Christina pacholski Dr David rosemarin just to mention a few the SMA us also participates in events with the International spiritist Medical Association presenting International speakers such as Dr Peter Fenwick Dr rubert sheldrake Dr Alexander Mora Almeida and Dr elain dzell and others during the first semester of this year the smaus presented a series of lectures by psychiatrists and researchers on spirituality in mental health and is planning to present a live Q&A on this topic at the end of the year the SMA us is now a subscriber of the religion spirituality and health Health scientific interest group of the National Institutes of Health and announces its events through their mailing list to the scientific Community interested in spirituality and health support the smaus by becoming a member by going to www. sm- us.org present a live Q&A on this topic at the the year Thea us is now subscriber of the religion spirituality and the health scientific interest group of theal Institutes of Health and announces its

us.org present a live Q&A on this topic at the the year Thea us is now subscriber of the religion spirituality and the health scientific interest group of theal Institutes of Health and announces its events through their list to the scientific Community interested in spirituality support the S us byom member by going to www sn- us. all right now I have a message particularly Focus here on those that are local here to Portland Hillsboro Vancouver clamas in the area uh if the message you're listening to here is resonating with you if it's helping you breathe better uh if you think you need help if you think you can help others uh there is a center Here Local to the area about 20 minutes from here uh there is a flyer just like this all around there if you want to get the flyer there's also a number of members of that Center if you're listening to me if you don't want to raise in your hands so people know where you are there's some you know they look very much like the volunteers that raised their hands earlier today so if you want to go talk to then and me then please go ahead and do that obviously if you're not local if you want to visit as well they would love to welcome you no matter what and it would be great to have you all there in so uh now uh going on with our program uh it is my pleasure to welcome back to Stage Dr Ana fona uh they came all the way from Brazil uh to share her expertise with us um as we get ready for that and as she comes to join us here on stage once again don't forget to prepare your your questions right so send the questions put on the papers go online if you are online uh and Dr an is going to be talking to us now about integrating spirituality and health care with you Dr F so I think this is okay the sound uh I think I should put then my spiritual glasses we are learning with each other right so and let's see if I got it right so it was a beautiful presentation from em USA and let's talk a little bit more about that let's see ah okay but my spiritual glasses you

rning with each other right so and let's see if I got it right so it was a beautiful presentation from em USA and let's talk a little bit more about that let's see ah okay but my spiritual glasses you know it's too far away so have to turn uh well so we've talked a lot today about um J jeles and the uh spiritual path to mental health and I'll bring to you now a little bit of in the medical field okay uh that how we research that in the past 3040 years uh I saw Alexander there he's one of the main Brazilian um psychiatrist that are um studying and researching about spirituality and religion and mental health I myself are part of the uh Comm special interest group in the Brazilian Psychiatric association and also in the world Psychiatric association so it's interesting for us to notice uh some Concepts you see here heal and it's all the concept of health and mental health okay it's of from the World Health Association so from 1998 the World Health Association already states that mental health is a dynamic state of complete physical mental spiritual and social well-being and not merely the absence of disase or infirmity so spirituality uh appears in the concept from 1998 on and mental health that we have been discussing discussing today so the state of well being in which the individual realizes his or her capabilities can cope with the normal stresses of Life uh productively and fruitfully and contrib to the community in which he or she lives this is from 2001 on okay so the state of wellbeing so we are talking about wellbeing and paos you know as pathological that we talk a lot here in the west so it comes from the Greek word uh I can't pronounce it I don't know if anyone of you knows Greek but um that it means suffering or experience a Greek world that the word that means passivity suffering feeling or illness and it was the cart that cre um connected it with the suffering thing so when we are saying what's your pathology not your diagnosed that right so we're pathologizing right right um The

ing or illness and it was the cart that cre um connected it with the suffering thing so when we are saying what's your pathology not your diagnosed that right so we're pathologizing right right um The Suffering and and as we have been talking here previously so suffering is something that we are all going to go through at some point uh especially because the ego is trying to adapt and here we live uh now we are we can say one of the crisis of humanity to evolve but you know people Yung says that without crises there is no development of Consciousness without some sort of Crisis and Jada was uh was talking to us now in the beginning of the day uh remembering that in yun's house there was the cross and about the archetype we couldn't talk much about the archetype so ancient forms in our psych that already have these images that uh our suffering here right but it's a suffering not without a sense or purpose it is a suffering to evolve to development to develop Consciousness okay this is very important so when the card uh connected P posos that um means also suffering not only illness and feeling you see here and passivity but it's not a passivity uh that um that we can't do anything about it it's a passivity in terms of Acceptance in psychological terms so there's many more meanings to phos than only illness and we have from the C's own uh Associated and we say medical field pathology right so okay so you know that ptos is not only about illness that's why I wanted to bring the e Theology of the world so and what about healing the process of becoming well again especially after a cut or they injured this is in the dictionary or of making someone well again like we do in the spirit centers talking to people the the process in which a bad situation or painful emotion ends or improves it's another way to see it and what about wholeness that we talk about holistic Concepts right even in medical field we are talking about that so the state of forming a complete in harmonious whole Unity the state of

to see it and what about wholeness that we talk about holistic Concepts right even in medical field we are talking about that so the state of forming a complete in harmonious whole Unity the state of being unbroken or undamaged so we work pretty much in the in these days in medical field the state of being unbroken or undamaged but I wanted you to bring the the dictionary uh meanings because it's the first one is the state of for a complete and harmonious whole and unity so we are talking about when we talk about wholeness from the point of view of psychology we are talking about what we were discussing in the morning that is the interconnection of everything within us and outside of us and this interconnection this um perception of the interconnection um among everything that is here in this universe in this time and place this is spirituality this is integration this is growth Evolution right so that's why I also wanted to bring you this concept so I love this guy Andre PO he has um the ways of the soul is the name of his book He's a psychiatrist from England from the Royal College of psychiatrist and he's one of the psychiatrist that founded the first special interest group in Psychiatry spirituality religion and Psychiatry uh in the world it started in England in the Royal College of Psychiatry you can check and see the special interest group and Andrew Powell says in his book despite strong research I brought some for you strong research evidence that spirituality and health are positively correlated spirituality this is in research from the last decades spirituality has been considered within conventional medicine as irrelevant to the work of the healthc Care team this also occures in Psychiatry because religious and spiritual themes since Freud began to be identified with illness and seen through the lens of pathology okay this is very important so initiatives as Dr marinin that you all know from Brazil there a very good friend of shiku Shier she developed her

ied with illness and seen through the lens of pathology okay this is very important so initiatives as Dr marinin that you all know from Brazil there a very good friend of shiku Shier she developed her medians ship with shiku and she created the the Brazilian Medical spiritist Association the first one Amy Brazil and then from now on the the International Medical spiritist Medical Association and from the on uh then every a lot of us started wow there's something here so let's study about that so but so that's why the movie here that you passed before my talk is so important for us these initiative are so so important and we say in the medical field that medicine is changing not exactly because of the doctors I'm sorry about my colleagues but that's the the what what's going on it's changing because of the patience it's changing because each one of you when you go and you know and talk to your daughter uh your doctors and tell them uh about your spiritual experiences and tell them about your dreams about your religiosity about your spirituality you are are all helping the medical field develop there's a research that say International one that 70% of the patients want the doctor uh they are personal doctor to talk about them about religious and spirituality and only 30% of the doctors feel okay to talk with the patients about that so we need very much the patients coming forward and telling their doctors well I would like to talk about my beliefs and faiths I think this helps with my health uh because this helps medicine also okay so um in the previous movie you saw um Dr Harold kenning he has been in Brazil also we are all friends and and watch uh each each other's research and things like that and Duke at Duke University Duke University Medical Center is one of the greatest centers here in us uh that research spirituality religion and health okay and Dr kenning has uh made a review a systematic review from 1872 to 2010 of all quantitative re search publishing peer reviewed academic

e in us uh that research spirituality religion and health okay and Dr kenning has uh made a review a systematic review from 1872 to 2010 of all quantitative re search publishing peer reviewed academic journals in the English language listed uh in the main database okay this is a beautiful research and work that he and his team has have done and he has published the first Handbook of of religion and Health Oxford University press in 2001 and the second in 201 and 12 and uh it's a brief summary so I won't Tire you but religiosity and spirituality they say in his handbook it can be a powerful coping Resource as we have been discussing here it is related to better mental health and healthier behaviors it is related to better physical health better Medical Health uh medical and surgical outcomes sorry and greater longevity and all you know that for research's for purpose we have to duplicate or triplicate we have to be able to duplicate the research and they are showing the same uh results okay so uh we have I just wanted to bring you this concept so that you can talk uh in the scientific field we can talk with academics you can talk to whoever you want um because we we have our own in in for instance in spiritism our own definitions and we were talking about um Jonah deangeles and her work and psychology but for research purposes in in Academia so we use we separate religion and spirituality and religion um it's an organized like kenning and his team started and now we use all of us use so religion is an organized system of beliefs practices rituals and symbols designed to assist individual's proximity to the sacred and or Transcendent and spirituality in the medical field is vealed as personal research for answers about the meaning of life and the relationship with the sacred or and or Transcendent okay and so kenning says that spirituality is a popular expression currently preferred over religion because we say that many people have and call themselves a spiritual person but

and or Transcendent okay and so kenning says that spirituality is a popular expression currently preferred over religion because we say that many people have and call themselves a spiritual person but not a religious one so I know that all of you know that um and it is considered personal defined by the individual it is generally free from Rules and responsibilities associated with religion a person can be spiritual but not religious it is seen as common to everyone it is especially useful in a clinical setting however because it is very subjective it is difficult to measure and quantify because you know as I told you previously it's medicine based on evidence so we need to do research in medicine and we need to quantify to have variables that we can compare so they say that spirituality is a we can measure let's say you have some instruments uh in the medical field to measure like in asking people questions uh but in as in evaluating actually the spirituality of a person if it's more develop developed or whatever but it is difficult to as a variable in in research to compare okay as use as a verbal so uh we use much more religion for instance uh church or Temple attendance I'm quite sure you know that and it said that for instance if a person go let's say to the spiritist um Center or church or whatever but from the person's religion and practice like once or twice a week it uh has a very the evidence are very strong that the person is more uh it's healthier the person is healthier and if it the person gets sick for instance it recover the person recovers uh quicker okay so these are kind of evidence that research are showing and what about religiosity so it is the extent to which an individual believes follows and practices a religion it can be organizational participation in church or religious Temple or nonorganizational praying reading books watching religious programs and so on or both of them but I wanted to bring you that because there is a difference when I we say and I

ch or religious Temple or nonorganizational praying reading books watching religious programs and so on or both of them but I wanted to bring you that because there is a difference when I we say and I quite sure that all of you even in spiritism have um some sometimes difficulty explaining to people that are not spiritist oh but you are Christians right so you are kind of fanatic or something like that right I know from your smil so that people don't know this difference between intrinsic religion and extrinsic okay so we separate uh because of to study how religion affects the person and also the outcome of diseases an intrinsic religion has a central place in the individual's life I can tell you that spiritists usually have intrinsic religion okay it is the greatest good other needs are seen as secondary of lesser importance and as far as possible are placed in harmony with their religious belief and orientation having accepted a religion the individual seeks to internalize this is a psychological term internalize it and follow it fully this variable religiousity so intrinsic religiosity is associated in researches with positive outcomes in clinical studies this is the religiosity that we see in spiritism but fanatical fanaticism extrinsic religiosity okay it is a means used to obtain other ends such as consolation sociability this is okay uh distraction but status this is not okay in psychological terms and not okay distraction too so religion is accepted superficially or is adapted to meet the individual's needs and personal goals this would be very freuden that that's was what was frauding talking about okay when he called religiosity uh one of um actually one of the mechanisms of defense of the eag reactive formation you know that some of you that are studying Jan jelis she talks about the mechanism of Defense one of them reactive reactive formation so this would be extrinsic religiosity adapted to meets the individual's needs and personal goals in a sense of his Persona and

s about the mechanism of Defense one of them reactive reactive formation so this would be extrinsic religiosity adapted to meets the individual's needs and personal goals in a sense of his Persona and likes in social media then here we have fanaticism okay and this variable is associated with negative Health outcomes so if I believe that God is punishing me if I believe that my disease my illness is a punishment from from God if I feel guilty about then we will have negative uh Health outcomes okay and even mortality the rates of mortality increase well then that's very important that religious spiritual coping as we call in the medical field and in Psychiatry is the way that people use their Rel religiosity and spirituality to deal with stressful situations and difficult difficulties in their lives so today we have been talking about religious spiritual coping from the point of view of the medical field okay but as you see negative religious spiritual coping we were talking about positive religious spiritual coping that it's what Joanna jangel teach teachings and the spiritist knowledge tell us about but there there is also negative religious spiritual coping in empirical studies they have uh been linked these forms of coping with depression and anxiety and increase risk of death as I was telling you this is from uh canning's uh handbook why people because it's extrinsic religiosity okay and then it it makes a negative religious spiritual coping because I will believe I'm not thinking about my spirituality I'm not developing it inside of me I'm not thinking about the concepts I'm thinking to please uh whatever religious leader I in my community I think that I'm thinking about and I'm going to the temple the center or the church because I want people to like me but I don't even pay attention of the sacredness of the taxt I don't reflect upon them and then when I get ill then I will think that God is punishing me I will think that it's something really bad that I did I have

n pay attention of the sacredness of the taxt I don't reflect upon them and then when I get ill then I will think that God is punishing me I will think that it's something really bad that I did I have no hope well we have an increased risk of death of course it's everything connected so the religious and spiritual dimensions of the culture are among the most important factors that structure The Human Experience and patterns of health illness and death and for most people religion and spirituality are more of a source of support and well-being than a psychopathological manifestation this is very very important and negative views of religion and spirituality do not hold up in light of recent studies which found no independent association between spirituality and psychopath pathology as medical personal thought in the past and still many of them think in the present that's why we need the researchers and we need you know to talk about that so why should the clinician address the patients spirituality because beliefs can help patients deal with aspects of their life religious activity and beliefs are related to Better Health and quality of life studies show that most patients would like their doctors as I I was telling you to talk about their religion and spirituality and reported that they would feel more empathy and Trust in the Doctor Who question question this topic an integral and more humanized Vision that we are unfortunately losing in many countries in the medical field this is Ken Parkman from two to2 he has been in Brazil in the first Global meeting of his spirituality religion and mental health that Alexander and I did in we were able to put together in one um Brazilian Association psychiatric Congress so religion and spirituality they reinforce understanding by offering hope value meaning and purpose they facilitate integration and social support by linking religious patients with specific forms of Community Care they provide systems of meaning e and existential

ring hope value meaning and purpose they facilitate integration and social support by linking religious patients with specific forms of Community Care they provide systems of meaning e and existential coherence this is very very important for mental health as we have been talking other possible explanations of how religion can affect Health respect for the body advocated by many religions including our friend Dan was talking about about spiritis generating better nutrition and lifestyle habits optimization of Psych neuroimmunological psychon neuroendocrine and psychophysiological Pathways I just put it here for you to know that even in our body physiology of our body we are seeing the effects of a developed spirituality and religiosity in a patient uh better coping and stress reduction Strate strategy better psychological state by bringing hope forgiveness alteris and love and approaching religiosity and spiritual it and I think this can be useful but spiritists uh usually know that already by all of kardex and all the great spirits uh writings in a natural and peaceful way uh how does the patient so questions how um how does the patient live with this the disease what is the meaning of the disease in his her life what cultural beliefs may impact his or her treatment and use suitable instruments if you are in the medical field there are a lot of instruments questionaries I wanted to bring you here guys because uh uh about this wonderful project in at Harvard Medical School um that is integrating knowledge across disciplines the name is the human flourishing program okay it's a beautiful program that aims to bring together various academic disciplines across the university together on important questions so it's interdisciplinary program and I'm not going to go through all this but I I do think you should all Google it okay and take a look because it's a beautiful program some of brazilian's researchers have already been there I just don't want to go um too much on that but the thing is that

you should all Google it okay and take a look because it's a beautiful program some of brazilian's researchers have already been there I just don't want to go um too much on that but the thing is that the program is oriented around the question how may religion and spirituality in concert with public health and um the practice of medicine alleviate illness and promote human well-being I think they need J jel is there what do you think right we'll get there I'm quite sure so I brought a little bit call Gustav Yung today's this is Jung okay today's psychological problem is a spiritual problem and Yung was saying this in the 1950s 1960s a religious problem man is hungry and thirsty for a secure relationship with the psychic forces within himself so pathway spiritual Pathways to mental balance right authentic religiosity authentic is the best medicine for all psychological suffering for psychon Neurosis ultimately is the suffering of a soul that has not found its meaning I love this sentence I love it I and I I wanted to bring to you because I think this is a summary of what we have been talking today okay and I brought this sentence by Leonard B in Brazil he's the one of the guys the religious people that translated Yung to Portuguese and Leonard both said the rescue of the spiritual diens Dimension is urgent we need to rescue spirituality that that is non material values the feeling of belonging see them you were talking about out to something greater and the perception that things are connected to each other and that this guiding thread that unites everything in the cosmos is the name that religions gave to that mystery that we call God which is not outside of us but within us in our death I think it's a beautiful sentence and then we have Alan kard that we have talked a lot but I wanted very much to bring you this if the feeling of the existence of a Supreme Being were nothing more than the product of a teaching it would not be Universal and it would not exist like

a lot but I wanted very much to bring you this if the feeling of the existence of a Supreme Being were nothing more than the product of a teaching it would not be Universal and it would not exist like the Notions of science except in those who could have receive this teaching so that's a beautiful sentence by Alan kard and and I brought to you some Comics right so we can um have some fun with ourselves and our difficulty God where are you well I'm up here and also this comic that I love I think young and teenagers and young medical personnel are uh reading a lot the the heart and the Brain going to bed wake me when the world is fixed the heart says and the Brain say sorry heart the word the world needs you so thank you and uh before I go I have four minutes so I left some minutes that's why I rushing here to read to you I made a summary because it's a beautiful Prayer by John Henry Newman from the 19th century so we were talking about Darkness my colleagues previously were talking about also the crisis and I wanted very much to I love this prayer it's just a sumary so lead kindly light amid the encircling Gloom let me on the night is dark and I'm far away from home let though me W so long thy power has me sure it still will lead me on until the night is gone and with the morning those angels faces smile which I have loved long since and lost a while thank you thank you so much Dr now it's time for a little break so we're going to have a coffee break don't forget to check out our books still we have the 25% discount but ends when the Symposium ends so hurry up get those books and we will be back at 3:50 okay enjoy your break in e for you here so uh we were saying about it is time to go and connect and get to know people and from what I saw outside there was a lot of connection happening so well done all right uh we're back into the program uh couple more hours to go here and uh during the day we've been asking you to submit questions uh thank you for doing that both you here as well

so well done all right uh we're back into the program uh couple more hours to go here and uh during the day we've been asking you to submit questions uh thank you for doing that both you here as well as online uh and now we're gonna have a chance to go through some of those questions uh another round of Q&A so uh I'd like to invite you Jean corn go to join us here and while I'm introducing Jean I also want to come back into the stage here Dan CI Susanna simoes Andrea Marshall nto chrisan deelo and an fona so welcome back and uh John cor go is a co-founder and director of both the spiritualist group of New York and the spiritualist alliance for books with his extensive involvement in the US spiritous movement he has played a crucial role uh in leading mediumship meetings and has been a dedicated speaker in leading spiritualist Studio groups so with now with you the group thank you thank you welcome back uh it has been a very enlightened uh day with a lot of learning experiences thank you for the questions that you sent uh so let it start in order right of the presenter so the first one goes to Dan then due to to the sufferings of life one can easily become indifferent how can spiritism help this difficult feeling hello everyone first of all let me just say how exciting it is to have an opportunity to do questions and answers spiritism started with questions and answers it's all about questions and answers it's in our DNA increase in the DNA you know spiritism so that's a wonderful question and a very practical one too I can see why we would sometimes desensitize ourselves to suffering in the world because it's a coping mechanism sometimes there's so much happening that I can see why we would say I'm not going to pay attention to that so I understand that but I would urge all of us us to not let ourselves slide into a point where we are indifferent to other people's suffering because we don't want people to be indifferent to us either I also understand that sometimes

e all of us us to not let ourselves slide into a point where we are indifferent to other people's suffering because we don't want people to be indifferent to us either I also understand that sometimes we may feel a certain sense of helplessness about what is it that we can do today I'll give you an example to try to make it more personal today as we were walking here from the hotel we saw a lot of our um unhoused neighbors living in the streets and and that's a problem that we see growing in many different parts of the world including my hometown or at least my town now um San Diego and I have grappled and wrestled with that because I don't know what I can do to help end homelessness but I do know that I can at least acknowledge and smile and say hello I can offer that which I have in that moment even if it's not enough to solve the problem long term I can just be there for that moment is it enough for that moment for me it is because I can't do anything else so I fight the feeling of I am not going to look at our friends I'm not going to think about it because the problem is so big that I can't tackle it it's okay to wrestle with a CH challenge but at the same time we want to make sure that we do it in a way that it doesn't handicap us forever right like we don't want to spiral into worrying about a problem so much that we can't go about our daily lives so finding that hard that that Medium finding that balance between being empathic and caring and leading us to some sort of action is very important so I would suggest that we should not just brush it on carpet whatever it is because the truth is tomorrow it could be us it could be somebody we care and that person who that's going to whatever challenge you're facing is somebody's children right they have a mother and a father who cares for them and even a Buddhist practice of thinking about it that way is saying like what if you were their mom what would you do so I think empathy is a very powerful tool I invite us to bring that into our lives and

en a Buddhist practice of thinking about it that way is saying like what if you were their mom what would you do so I think empathy is a very powerful tool I invite us to bring that into our lives and understand that even if we can't find a final solution to the problem we can at least offer that which we have at that moment and maybe after maybe we can still try to figure how to help people afterwards and offer prayers and offer help and and lend a hand but try to fight that feeling of indifference because that's really dangerous territory for the cell right the moment that we're indifferent to everything else we're this connected and that it probably does not bold well for our own mental health and emotional health the long term because no man is an island as the poet would say right no person is an island so um so let's try to fight that and remember that we're all connected if we go back to our spirituality and to our sense of immortality and and community and then becomes easier for us to remember that we're just in different sides of a situation but that with being present and being kind is at least a start that's how I would face that thanks then so Andrea second how can we go on and not sin anymore when we do not know how to do it better thank you okay um thank you first and foremost I just wanted to say thanks for the it guys that are responsible for the transmission people are watching at home and it's because of them so thank you for the beautiful work they're doing um the the the best way that we can explain and just for those that are watching you know the sin is such a harsh word right it brings back a lot of memories uh that perhaps was one of the reasons that it led us away from religious and religiousness as anahi Dr anahi was talking about the difference between the words um to sin me means to miss the mark that's what it means to make it lighter and easier to comprehend and that's something that we do almost every day whether in action or thought

nce between the words um to sin me means to miss the mark that's what it means to make it lighter and easier to comprehend and that's something that we do almost every day whether in action or thought we are not always crispy clean right it's something that we still deal with it's something that it's still hard for us to rid ourselves of because as we were talking about reincarnation the experiences that we have had as Immortal Spirits it's the sum of all that we have been through and have walked through but we still have to do a little more to reach plenitude and that's the truth but St Augustine comes to our rescue um in The Gospel According to spiritism and this the spirit's book um he will tell us about the way that we can actually lead Better Lives seeking Harmony and balance and he would say do as I do as I did when I was alive at the end of each day I would do an assessment a daily assessment uh of my actions and whatever it is that um we realized wasn't so great we would reflect upon it and the next day try to do better and that's what we should do it is not always easy because we might leave the spirit Center feeling very whole and very happy and then somebody cuts in front of us in traffic and we get irritated right right away that feeling uh that we have held for so long through different incarnations comes up flares up and that's quite okay one of the things that we must realize or better yet I wouldn't say must but perhaps we should realize is what Janna Ganges talks about in being awake we are no longer spirits that are asleep we are already awake otherwise we wouldn't be here on a Saturday afternoon listening to different speakers and seeking knowledge with spiritism this beautiful body of knowledge that we have before us so we are awake already we are no longer sist we're not no longer walking uh Our Lives along Our Lives asleep we are pretty much aware we are conscious already and because of that it talks about a level of spiritual maturity and in doing so we won't punish

no longer walking uh Our Lives along Our Lives asleep we are pretty much aware we are conscious already and because of that it talks about a level of spiritual maturity and in doing so we won't punish ourselves and we realize that we have made a mistake and then we will seek daily strive daily to work on the knots of things that still live behind a big one a big one is forgiveness anybody here have issues with other people right but what do we do when we understand that the greatest charity that we can do is benevolence Indulgence and forgiveness as explained by Christ the beep right benevolence towards everyone Indulgence towards the Forgiveness of others and um and forgiveness for the offenses forgiveness is something that we we seek from others so perhap this is one of the things that has led us to walk astr St for many many experiences in different lives which is why often we are brought on that same Life along with others that we have aired with in the past or sinned with in the past and so reincarnation gives an opportunity to do better to do it again as spiritists as reincarnationist spirits that we are we understand that life is giving us an opportunity to go and sin no more so that the illnesses that we have brought on ourselves um do not keep on dragging and making us feel so miserable because it does and if you haven't been able to forgive someone you know that that's one of the things that cause a lot of suffering it's so great I was talking to my husband one night I like to do it like two in the morning he loves it I'll wake him up with a question you know just wondering about that and he's like just open the spirit's book it's there you know I'm sleepy right now um yeah that's him he's so he's he's so patient with me how wonderful it is to not feel imprisoned by the shackles of being unable to to forgive someone which doesn't mean that we love them immediately but then you know do we already do the exercise of loving one's enemy right are we able to not put

y the shackles of being unable to to forgive someone which doesn't mean that we love them immediately but then you know do we already do the exercise of loving one's enemy right are we able to not put barriers for communication for reconciliation are we able to wish other people well right like I don't I don't want to deal with them right now but I don't wish anything bad upon them that's the Christian spiritist awareness conscious way of living so my suggestion would going back to the beginning of the answer do as St Augustine would do at the end of each day make an assessment of the actions and strive better to do it daily or strive daily to do it better the others are the same right yes kren you can hold the microphone it's for you are you sure you don't want to do a Susanna or or you gotta ask if it's an easy one or a hard one if it's a hard one you pass yeah it's getting EAS easier okay it's not but it's good for you I like that question for you how do we show our vulnerability when the world tells us that to be vulnerable is to be weak Channel your inner R Channel your in BR we have to live our truth it's as simple and as difficult as that we can attempt to try and be something that we are not try to live accordingly but check back and see how you you feel after that but that's why a lot of us are in so much of this inner struggle because we live this duality of who we are who we really are who we present to the world but until each one of us is able to be authentically who we are to be able to sit in our shame in in our darkness in our shadows and come to know it we can't truly come to the light so how you do it my suggestion because I have about five more seconds is to pray about it and ask for your own personal guidance because for each one of us it's very unique it's very different what looks like vulnerability to you may not necessarily look the same to me and that's okay and it's so interesting because right before we came up to th a little interaction happened a

ery different what looks like vulnerability to you may not necessarily look the same to me and that's okay and it's so interesting because right before we came up to th a little interaction happened a mistake was made and it the person who experienced the mistake was so tangibly embarrassed and suanna what did you and I say sit in the shame it's okay it's okay so also me being my my best version of myself living what I believe is the best thing I can do because then others would get inspired just like many people have become very inspired by Dr breny Brown's work on shame and vulnerability created a ripple effect that's all thanks Susanna so how do mental health practitioners can assist clients in directly connecting with and receiving healing and guidance from helping Spirits you want me to read again sure yes so give you five seconds more to think how can mental health pratic practitioners assist clients in directly connecting with and receiving healing and guidance from helping Spirits okay so the mental health practitioner has to have some belief in spirituality that's me processing the question and then wants to guide the patient or the client to connect with the spirits is that what is being asked exactly that um I think that well first of all the client needs to be open to the idea of spirituality and existence of another dimension but if the client is then I always think that the the the the best path to connection is connection to oneself if you connect to yourself if the mental health practitioner is able to facilitate connection with the self in first place restoring a sense of Integrity of dignity then the person might be able to because when we are in a state of confusion or mental health um illness any issues a lot of times we lose perspective we in a very narrow place we can't see beyond so I would say that the first step would be to facilitate this integration and connection with the self once you restore that sense of dignity and connection you can say start to

e we can't see beyond so I would say that the first step would be to facilitate this integration and connection with the self once you restore that sense of dignity and connection you can say start to introduce perhaps the idea that there is something else to connect to both outside and within you so I'm not sure if it's it's a very broad question I think Don't Kill the Messenger and and and who is this health care practitioner who is the client I mean it's so Broad and it would depend a lot on the health care practitioner on the case what is the case right so but I truly believe that connecting with yourself is connecting with the Divine is connecting with God within and that opens every time that we we we promote this healing it opens opportunities for connections Beyond yourself and better quality of connections with everyone your neighbors incarnate and discarnate the rest it's it's very personal the person needs to be open to to listen Healthcare practitioners need to be Mindful and respectful of the moment one of the greatest qualities of healthcare practitioner I'm not one but I have been in therapy for many years in analysis and the good health care practitioner respects the time of the patient and walks with the patient together side by side in the patient's pace and um so having had these experience which I want to say was one of the best experien of my life and I want to say this to since I have the microphone and the lights we spend so much money and so much of our Resources with the things that will not provide us what we need and the treasures that we are going to take with us once we leave this world our Mental Health health is worth it it is probably most likely the very best investment that I did in my life because you're investing in the Mortal spirit and it is the type of treasures is the best inheritance that we can pass on to our children that we can help the new generation sometimes we ask how can we help the world right how can we help our children the answer is you got to

s is the best inheritance that we can pass on to our children that we can help the new generation sometimes we ask how can we help the world right how can we help our children the answer is you got to invest on yourself on your own mental health so please do so and sorry if I didn't answer the question because I don't think there is an actual answer for the question I think that answers you know you good maybe yes no but what you did was that you in the beginning you moved around without finding the direction suddenly you found a direction and you went through it which was beautiful I think the good spirits for that so Dr fona um should we be suspicious of alternative medical practices expansion of a medical reach there are so many out there how do I identify the good from the bad wow I like the questions they're challenging yeah not simple question yeah not simple ones well maybe it's kind of the questions that a question that was proposed to suan um but what I can say that for instance in Brazil we have a national health um system okay so anyone can go to a hospital even foreigners and will be seen and taken care of but of course this would be great if all the treatments were were available which they are not but the basic ones yes uh but to this day there's something interesting that happened um they started um accepting uh I wouldn't call alternative medicine but but we call compliment complimentary medicine okay there are things like um healing imposing of the hands uh there are things that like mindfulness that then talking was talking about so I think a better term would be complimentary medicine not alternative but I know there are lots of what we call alternative medicine I would maybe this question would join all of the others because um Andrea thought um talked about being awake so uh if we believe in the spirit in the immortality of the spirit and if we believe in reincarnation I think we are pretty much awake and so I would say that um and together with what suzan and then and

uh if we believe in the spirit in the immortality of the spirit and if we believe in reincarnation I think we are pretty much awake and so I would say that um and together with what suzan and then and all the others were talking about um I think it's a personal thing that um I just came to my mind a spiritual leader was asked what is the best religion and the answer was uh the one that makes you better a better person so I would go in this direct Direction and say what's what's you know the best um treatment um the one that really works for you altern if you're talking about alternative or complimentary medicine um it has to be there's no other way because um what we say in the medical field is that um a treatment is only con considered in medicine if it has gone through all researches and Decades of followup um you know uh controlling to see if the person really gets uh the health that the treatment supposed to give during many years we call the followup so um alternative medicine doesn't have to this day this kind of research this kind of follow up so many times at least at least in Brazil and some part parts of United States in Europe from what I understand so what happens that we need more research as I was we need to discuss more and uh people that go to Alternative Medicine have you know they they will have to count on their own criteria because uh if it's not gone through the regular Paths of what we call science that I think it's changed thanks God and Dr molinaa No and all the people that came before us because um the open path we are talking about a new paradigm of in medicine also that is is the spiritual um Paradigm coming um in you know the focus of all the scienti scientist and all the researchers but one data that could be interesting for for you I don't know here in United States I understand for instance that there exists regularly past life therapy that it's okay but for instance in Brazil uh if I am a medical person I cannot um do past lives therapy I cannot

n United States I understand for instance that there exists regularly past life therapy that it's okay but for instance in Brazil uh if I am a medical person I cannot um do past lives therapy I cannot I can do if it's for research purposes but I cannot do professionally and you know be paid for that why because it's not not scientifically proved yet so I can only tell that for the person that ask and for all of you that are hearing if we're I I prefer the term complimentary medicine uh because then if things like spiritist knowledge brings us we all know the imposing of hands the water the fluidification of the water I love what shiku Shier I think it was a man I think that or Andre Louise I'm not quite sure maybe you guys can help me but about the the water if you are stressed if you want to say something then the medicine piss water I love that so I would say it's complimentary medicine piss water right just put in your mouth don't swallow and wait for you know wait to calm down to see if we're going to do something with that so there are lots of things to be discovered in medicine field and I think we are doing you know all this in the spiritist uh Movement we are reaching the point that we know more about and then science is changing and so I would say your own criteria and use what Andrea said um your awaken State trust within your yourself in what's best for you what feels right that I would say that thank you very good I'm just gonna jump in absolutely for those of you who may not be familiar with PE water it is the idea of putting water in your mouth and not saying what you really mean when somebody's talking to you about things you don't like right it's very peaceful right put a little bit of water in your mouth don't when hold it when a 10 minutes or 20 days or 30 years depends on who you're with and then don't swallow and then don't swallow don't swallow and PE water there it is thank you so then back to you how does the planetary transition and spiritual and mental health are

who you're with and then don't swallow and then don't swallow don't swallow and PE water there it is thank you so then back to you how does the planetary transition and spiritual and mental health are related oh I like that one how many minutes we got there all right now so let's let's just give some context really quick L within spiritism we sometimes use this term called planetary transition and what we mean by that is everything else in nature evolves we are evolving we are growing our planet is also evolving we are also graduating from a phase and going to a next one but in every evolution there are key moments that are important for us there are like formative moments they are moments that really help us transition to a new level of maturity and we believe given and everything else that we have seen and the messages we have received for decades now even hundreds of years depending on how you look at it that we are in such an inflection point in our spiritual Collective history we call that planetary transition we are changing our planet is growing it is evolving so when this happens in this moment now we are taking a lot of things once because we need to move on and so he makes sense that during these difficult times this time of growth we have an influx of challenges that are created for a variety of reasons that we should talk about some other time right but it makes sense then that as we are going through this process that we are going to exposed to a lot of challenges because we have to overcome them because we need to grow up so so that is the why we are going through all the things we are going in the world right now we talked a lot today about what is going and what we do with it but this this is sort of a context of why does the world seem so harsh right now is because a lot of us who still need to do a little spiritual growing up to do right are here now and we are exercising our experiences and our things that sometimes are not the healthiest of choices to be able to move along with

ll need to do a little spiritual growing up to do right are here now and we are exercising our experiences and our things that sometimes are not the healthiest of choices to be able to move along with this planet so spiritual planetary transition has everything to do with the moment that we're living in because it explains to us why we have so many different things going on we're all in this key moment of our own personal evolutionary lives but also of the planets and we have sort of like a for lack of a better term a test we're in school and we need to graduate from sixth grade to seventh grade and it's rough right now but we all going to do it together so it makes sense that during these difficult times we may feel an extra sense of urgency of confusion because all of us are trying to figure this stuff out at once and that's why the world is so tough so when we think about mental health we absolutely think about being okay with who we are but we also have to understand that we are immersed in a collective content right so we are in this Fishbowl called Earth and everybody else is going through their own stuff so now we have to deal with our stuff but also get the Vibes of the people next to us which makes it hard right it's hard for you to be upbeat when there are a lot of negative people around you and it's also hard for you to be negative when there's a lot of happy people around you it's quite annoying sometimes sometimes I want to be negative people are so cheerful right it's frustrating but will you get my point so we understand that this is the reason why we are seeing so many difficult challenges and diff events out there because we're all going through this natural evolutionary process that can be explained through reincarnation and the natur Revolutionary path to things and we are just very fortunate to be able to live live in this moment in time because it means that we can give a wonderful contribution to the betterment of our world not only of ourselves of

things and we are just very fortunate to be able to live live in this moment in time because it means that we can give a wonderful contribution to the betterment of our world not only of ourselves of but of the world in general so some people can say like ah was did I really have to be born in this moment in time so hard but we should also put our glasses on and say we have asked to be here because we can give something back we can help the world move along so mental health definitely an important component planetary transition definitely explains why mental health is such important now and why things are so tough thank you Andrea back to you you spoke about Jesus right how can we talk about Jesus without alienating those that have religious preconceptions and problems with uh Jesus uh figure by applying the Golden Rule do unto others as You' wish them to do unto you that is a universal law that can be applied to anybody who's not even religious because if you if you consider the phrase in itself and you start to ponder about this um you do would I wish onto Kiren something that I wouldn't wish upon on myself right and vice versa would I wish upon her something that I would wish for myself so um we we see a lot of uh hesitancy at times with Jesus when we participate in mediumistic meetings or Spirit rescue meeting depending on how you you come to know of it spirits that have had a a really negative experience with Christ per se because of what they might have suffered in a previous life right so the angle is quite hard because you don't want to alienate you don't want to offend um it's one of the very common questions that people you know ask isn't it a little pretentious when Jesus says I am the way nobody can go through to God andless through me and of course it's about the teachings it's about the lessons it's about um pretty much what he has brought and it's uncontestable and that's one of the things when we look at The Gospel According to spiritism and Marcelo said don't take

s it's about the lessons it's about um pretty much what he has brought and it's uncontestable and that's one of the things when we look at The Gospel According to spiritism and Marcelo said don't take the phone I'm like I'm gonna take the phone in case I have to like cheat but it's right there in the introduction right where they bring about Five Points in which one is uncontestable it doesn't matter who you are what religion you are from whatever it is it is the moral content of the message that we have uh found in The Gospel According to spiritism so to make it short because I know I like to we like to get another round of answers right I would say uh applying the Golden Rule and thinking about it would be a good way to go about it thanks um Kristen so a problem that uh we talked about a lot about suicide today right but an equivalent problem that we have in the US nowadays in most of the cities is drug addictions and overdoses right right how spiritism can help wow so so many ways but we have so little time to respond to this question so I'm going to say that's probably my Saving Grace but there there's so much that spirit is could offer but I will say this one beautiful thing that spiritism offers us when we are thinking about our brothers and sisters who have fallen to into addiction for a variety of reasons it's something we were sharing uh earlier today one of the things that shocked me even working in healthcare for 15 years and having worked with addicts for over 10 years and have seen what I think is I've seen it all but sometimes when you see like when I came here we came here to Portland and I was so struck by this gentleman that I saw on the street yesterday and of course my first reaction was horror because you know I hadn't seen that so openly in the in in a public space on the street but as soon as I thought that I immediately thought to myself my God my God this could be my son either one of my sons who 5 and three and I looked at this gentleman who

n a public space on the street but as soon as I thought that I immediately thought to myself my God my God this could be my son either one of my sons who 5 and three and I looked at this gentleman who was not old and I saw my son and my heart wept because he has parents he has a mother this is what spiritism offers us changing our perspective because how many times have we walked by these individuals and scoffed at them judged them use some Choice words even if it's just in our own mind and say that they are you know as many meetings over the years I've attended hearing government officials use Choice words in such individuals that there are a drain on the Health Care system but may Angelo said something really beautiful and she might have been quoting somebody else but she said until all of us are free none of us are free this is what spiritism has to offer us change the way we see one another it will change the way we begin to act a starting point Thank you thank you suzan on the same an easy one this time yes very easy let's go on the same topic how can spiritis spiritism helps us we living in a time of a lot of discrimination and prejudices gender race and others how spiritism can help us that's Seas you so how can spirites helps us well spiritualism helps us as Dan likes to say when we put those lenses right of immortality one of the ideas that I like to think the most is that spiritism eliminates what we call nowadays otherization the other the other is someone who's always different than me the other is someone who is often below me when I see someone as the other whatever the other might entail and then Compass I distance myself from the other and I understand that we are different we usually see someone else as others as a way of protecting ourselves and putting ourselves in a in a higher place so spiritism helps us by teaching us that we are all equal under God that we might be having different experiences due to our needs our spiritual needs but everything

ourselves in a in a higher place so spiritism helps us by teaching us that we are all equal under God that we might be having different experiences due to our needs our spiritual needs but everything that we see and we use to label one another is material our our biology is material we are in physical bodies the same way that the the color of our skin is material so spiritism helps us to understand that we are in a physical body but that we are not that physical body who are we we are all children of God with the same potentialities with the same possibilities and we are in the present moment and I love this exercise which I usually suggest for people to do try to imagine yourself outside of the physical body what is left whatever your answer is that's you that's you it has nothing to do with your profession has nothing to do your name with your position with what you do it has to do with what you feel it has to do with your emotions it has to do with your experiences it has to do with your learning your achievements that's you it's your unique way to carry all these achievements and relate with someone else that's you and whoever you are you are magnificent s because there's no one else in the entire universe like you so we learn to look at one another and that's another exercise is to when you are looking at someone else can you see beyond the eyes can you see beyond the physical can you relate with that being as a spiritual being so spiritism is very powerful in its message and in the invitation that it gives to each one of us to practice that I wish I could say that I have no Prejudice that's not true we all carry them we all have them so the very first thing that we need to do is to acknowledge our own prejudices and our own difficulties it's okay we come from a culture we come from a number of incarnations we are under a culture that is constantly telling us what we should do who we should like and and we still see minorities and majorities so we the first step is to recognize our own

er of incarnations we are under a culture that is constantly telling us what we should do who we should like and and we still see minorities and majorities so we the first step is to recognize our own prejudices and then keep working on the understanding of who we truly are and practicing recognizing be aware of when your own Prejudice is playing a role in a relationship and question yourself why do I need to see this person as other what is it that in this person is threatening me is causing me fear and the need to distance myself so Spirit brings a lot of material but again the material will go only so far he needs to find a heart that's open to emotional honesty emotional analysis and the willing to do the work to end any type of prejudice thank you San very good so our time is up but before we go Dr fona I'm not going to let you go without talking to us saying your final free the next I'm going to go easy on you just share with us your experience today your know first time in a spirited Symposium what how was it and uh you know what are you taking from this okay well it has been a pleasure to be here talking about all this and also a practice let's say because just following Susanna's stat um and everybody else's um this knowledge I was talking uh earlier about the collective unconscious as the transpersonal D U dimension of the psych and it's there uh psychologically speaking that we have the archetypes we're not going to talk about that but our common inheritance spiritual and psych psychic uh inheritance as human beings and I think Shanna uses a lot of Yung because um he was almost there he almost talked about the spirit as our you know as alanc said the intelligence force of creation um about Consciousness because as in I said we are children's of God so we are co-creative uh forces intelligence and that's why Jesus says that whatever I do you can do and even more more of course he was being kind but okay so the thing is that um to realize that we have all this

creative uh forces intelligence and that's why Jesus says that whatever I do you can do and even more more of course he was being kind but okay so the thing is that um to realize that we have all this potential as Su was saying I think it's very very important in this times of as D said of transition and as um you know Kristen said also we saw I saw to the people in the streets and we saw a lot in Brazil but when we get to the states kind of strange because you think as oh in a first world country you wouldn't be seeing things like that but I think one of the things that the pandemic taught us uh to this day because there are a lot of uh common traumas have uh have happened uh in the past for all of humankind but in our days is that there are no really limits we were all in the same boat right right so it didn't matter if the person had money or not was this and that because the resources were you know the medical people didn't know what to do and had to learn and all of that so we were stressed we had some control of different parts of um of our society in the way that people were um people were saying things information we made a little mess of things in the social media and WhatsApp because everybody was stressed but I think what this impos means and it's so so important is this realization that doesn't matter you know in the worst case scenario that we have in the traumas collective we don't know what comes um in in front of us but we know that's precious moments like this and the way that we can connect even if with people that are in their homes watching and we'll be watching later on uh to have this understanding that we are really one in the depths of our sight so in our spirit there is no difference because we are uh childrens of the source whatever you call The Source God so all the quti as saying is within us and the the capacity to create and we are beings of light even if the shadows in some of our brothers and sisters and in ourselves it still remain but we are Illuminating them we

s saying is within us and the the capacity to create and we are beings of light even if the shadows in some of our brothers and sisters and in ourselves it still remain but we are Illuminating them we are you know and Yung says I'll finish with that Yung says that the purpose of this life is to Kindle I think we should say a light in the darkness of the Soul so if here we have you know um kindled some lights turn on some lights in our souls that's good enough and every achievement every step on the way that we go further we can know that we are not alone because everything that I conquer in terms of the soul and the spirit I share with all of you so Dr maleni would say that we shouldn't be personalists you know we shouldn't get stuck in our egos and the in the our Persona uh why because she had the knowledge um growing up with shush shave by her side I wish I was there but um we all have our guides so we can be uh okay with that we are not alone so what happens is that every step of the way every achievement in terms of evolution we are sharing and we are sharing our shadows too but if we uh integrate them if we illuminate if we do as Kon s that we look to our brothers and sisters they are suffering they are kind of lost momentarily lost because we are all evolving and think of them in terms of light the light that they will be that there isn't even if it you know it's dim but there is inside of them and they they will you know be someday more light uh then we can follow the paths of Jesus we can because he was healing us um doing that Kindle lights inside of each one of us that's why he said it's not me that did it's your faith so let's keep doing this wonderful job thank you thank you Andrea kren Dan Susanna Dr fona thank you all for the answers and thank you all for listening to us well thank you indeed for the panel uh thank you for those of you who sent those questions the great and very provocative questions I thinking to myself we could probably spend like a

listening to us well thank you indeed for the panel uh thank you for those of you who sent those questions the great and very provocative questions I thinking to myself we could probably spend like a whole Symposium in each one of those questions right and maybe not have enough time so it's been awesome uh throughout the day uh we talked about challenges uh and we talked about hope as well uh and one thing that always brings us definitely brings me hope is when we think about the Next Generation so our next uh session here uh is another very special one we're gonna have the youth panel and to moderate the youth panel i' like to invite Beatrice l I have the pleasure to introduce Beatrice Lopez Beatrice Lopez has grown up in his spiritism attending the Alan kardak spir Center denbur in Connecticut she has been involved in spiritism by participating in study groups giving lectures delivering a speech at the United Nations and most recently helping to coordinate a youth spir is retreat today she'll be moderating the youth panel entitled youth perspective on spirituality and mental balance and to be part of this panel we ask to come to the stage Gabrielle maedo Sophia Jula and Isabella cabal please welcome them can I take it over there or should I stand here okay that's fine that's okay yeah it's okay um so thank you all for being here today this is really such an amazing event I'm so excited for these youth to share with you all um so today we'll be having a panel talking about the perspective of Youth and what they have to say on mental balance and spirituality I've been meeting with this incredible group of spiritist teens to prepare for this event and I'm so excited for you to see how much incredible knowledge and lived experiences they already have at the ages of um 15 16 and 17 at at the beginning of our planning they had the wonderful idea to reach out to the spiritist community and ask you all what questions you would like to ask teens on the topic of mental balance and

17 at at the beginning of our planning they had the wonderful idea to reach out to the spiritist community and ask you all what questions you would like to ask teens on the topic of mental balance and so unfortunately we can't get to every question today but we put together a good assortment of questions from the public um that they're going to be answering for you all so before we get started I do want to share a little bit about each of our panelists because again at these ages of 15 16 and 17 they've all already accomplished so much so first up is Sophia di Oliva if you want to wave if you were at the Symposium last year you'll remember Sophia as she is a returning youth panelist Sophia is 15 years old currently in 10th Grade and from the state of Texas Sophia has been a spiritist since 2017 and attends the sunrise spiritist societ Center a fun fact about Sophia is that she knows four languages English Portuguese Spanish and sign language for fun she enjoys writing poetry which you all might get lucky enough to hear today and she currently works as a swim instructor for little kids when she's older her dream is to build a youth clinic for a youth Clinic as a psychologist welcome Sophie next up I want to introduce you all to Bella Isabella Cabra is 16 years old and from Connecticut and in her junior year of high school Bella has been a spiritist her whole life and attends the spiritist Society of Bridgeport which is now actually located in statford Connecticut Bella is very involved with her Center and with her youth group she ALS also has attended several spiritist youth Retreats that are so much fun and I definitely recommend Bella is an advocate against gun violence inside and outside of school to ensure the safety of students within the school system she also partners with her Town's drug abuse prevention coalition to provide Mental Health Services to teenagers for fun Bella loves theater and dance especially tap dance her career aspiration is to become a journalist welcome Bella

drug abuse prevention coalition to provide Mental Health Services to teenagers for fun Bella loves theater and dance especially tap dance her career aspiration is to become a journalist welcome Bella and last but certainly not least we have Gabriel masu you will recognize Gabriel from the lovely music we heard this morning and at lunchtime Gabriel is 17 years old and a high school senior from Florida Gabriel has been a spiritis his whole life but really started focusing on studying spiritism in 2018 he currently attends San shiku chavier and participates in many studies there on topics such as the spiritist doctrine mediumship the spirits book and The Gospel According to spiritism at his Center he also leads the youth group class gives posies and coordinates lectures when he's not at school or at the Spirit Center he enjoys playing the piano as we saw martial arts and praying his dream is to compose classical music and Inspire others welcome Gabriel so so far during this event we've heard a lot of people talk about um mental balance and spirituality so to start off um what what does mental balance mean to you all in your youth perspective and why is it an important topic for Youth and for this question we'll start off with Gabriel first of all we have to understand and work through developments right because as teenagers we experience a lot of changes both physically and mentally and those changes can be a little difficult right so we have to find a balance between both of them and do stuff that we like we should do charity we should find hobbies to do and also as teenagers we have to figure out what we want to do as adults right and that can also be a very challenging thing right because there are so many options of so many things that you might want to do so you always have to try your best during your teenage years you have to learn discipline discipline is everything when you learn discipline at a young age that discipline is most likely going to follow through all the way to your old

during your teenage years you have to learn discipline discipline is everything when you learn discipline at a young age that discipline is most likely going to follow through all the way to your old ages thank you so much real I know you guys are going to see there's a lot of incredible answers coming your way um Bella what about you why do you think this is an important topic for youth especially um so first of all taking care of your sort of mental state and reaching a state of mental balance and striving for that is first of all and first and foremost an act of self-love being able to analyze yourself and see that I need Improvement to be able to make that decision so that you can grow and feel better is above all an act of self-love um and it's important for um youth and sort of to have this conversation about um mental balance because of how much sort of Youth today are experiencing we are experiencing Our Generation Um a a lot of unprecedented sort of experiences we have sort of the new um new Norms of social media more social pressures in that sense but also um with the pandemic how that really took us in sort of our in a very developmental stage of our lives and we were all stuck at home we couldn't talk we were we we didn't have that interaction and that real I guess um fundamental um stage of Our Lives as it had been for a lot of other Generations so and all of these um I guess challenges that we've been presented um they're not challenges as much as roadblocks that we can overcome but they they are very much unprecedented and it took a a huge hit our generation took a huge hit in terms of our mental state and so having these conversations um with adults and youth alike are super important absolutely it's really important to remember that today's youth are going through things that we could have never imagined would have happened um Sophia what what are your thoughts on why this is an important topic so for me what mental balance means to me is knowing how to pick yourself back up and

ld have never imagined would have happened um Sophia what what are your thoughts on why this is an important topic so for me what mental balance means to me is knowing how to pick yourself back up and working through very difficult situations because it helps build up uh resilience which is very key to uh mental balance you know being able to persevere and go through very difficult situations without giving up um and there's definitely plenty of coping mechanisms that can help us with this um one that I learned that's very helpful is called tip and it's a coping mechanism that you use when you're like very close to a panic attack you're just very super stressed it's a it's an acronym it means a temperature change intense exercise Pac breathing and progressive muscle relaxation and it's just four different things you can do physically that will help ground you and help give you uh the mental balance or at least to calm you down so you're able to work through difficult situations logically in that moment um another thing is knowing that you're not alone I mean there definitely plenty of people that are going through the same if not quite similar things that you are going through thank you so much Sophia great tip that you already gave us so thank you so how can youth identify when they're in a moment of mental balance or mental imbalances and for this one we'll start with Sophia one way is like seeing how other people perceive you you know your loved ones and your friends they're always going to tell you you know when when you're acting up because they know your normal behavior you're know oh you know you you seem kind of sad or you know you've been distancing yourself lately is this is there's something wrong or you've been more Angry you know when people say those things to you it t it gives you a chance to think oh wow like because we don't know how we act everything that we do we do it normally right um and so when people when people see it in a different perspectives

you it t it gives you a chance to think oh wow like because we don't know how we act everything that we do we do it normally right um and so when people when people see it in a different perspectives different perspective and encourages self-reflection you know we get a chance to say oh you know why are people saying this is this true and we we start to question you know oh are we really in that state of mind um so yeah the people can definitely tell us when we're mentally imbalanced yeah that's a great Point sometimes we don't want to hear what other people have to say about us but they can give us really good insights um Bella what about you on this question um so what's super important and I think is the first step to sort of identifying it is to know yourself and to know your feelings to not push down or try to hide any emotions that you might be feeling and to instead um sort of follow it sort of if you feel you know that feeling that you get maybe it's like a pit in your stomach or you feel like something isn't right well ask yourself why isn't this right where is the origin of this feeling and sort of when you can find that in work through it it can really allow you to see like okay what do I have to do or what can I do to return to a state of mental balance um and in addition to emotional stuff sometimes you can have physical sort of reactions to stuff so I know so sometimes with sort of anxiety you start to tremble or sometimes you'll get like a headache or a stomach a and so listen to your body when um when when you already emotionally don't feel super right or you're really stressed out and your body starts giving you these signals being like or listen to it so that you can pinpoint and sort of administer a course of action to return to the state of mental balance thank you so much for that answer B and Gabriel what about you what how can you identify so you have to do a little something called introspection right you have to reflect on yourself even by the

nce thank you so much for that answer B and Gabriel what about you what how can you identify so you have to do a little something called introspection right you have to reflect on yourself even by the end of the day or by the end of the week right really look back at what you did think what I did was it good or was it bad you have to know yourself and you have to know your own actions that you that you um made right what do you have to change what do you have to keep or what do you have to improvise again we always have to try to do our best every absolutely reflecting on ourselves is also a great way sometimes we just go through the motions and we don't think about what we've you know what we've done so that's a great answer thank you so we know that all of us and including youth have moments of mental balances and also imbalances so what are some things that youth can do when they're in those moments of mental imbalance and for this one we'll start with Bella um so when you're in a moment of sort of mental IM balance first of all have compassion with yourself and don't punish yourself for feeling this way it's natural we are going to come across a lot of challenges and so find compassion with yourself and show yourself this selflove um because sort of this insecurities or stuff that can come up um they can trigger a lot of mental imbalance so making sure you have compassion for yourself and self Lov is like one of the top things you can do um and in addition to that sometimes it's hard again we all know it's can be difficult to work through mental imbalances but as we were talking about earlier um if God put it to if if it's in your life God knows you can handle it and even if if you think it's very difficult something that's super super important and I could not recommend enough is is therapy and I know there's the stigma around this word that needs to be broken down because it's one of the best things you can do for yourself um genuinely even when you're in the

ommend enough is is therapy and I know there's the stigma around this word that needs to be broken down because it's one of the best things you can do for yourself um genuinely even when you're in the middle of sort of dealing with a roadblock therapy is super helpful for allowing to you to work through it but also preemptively is super important for example if you're if you know you're going to have like um a test coming up but you don't know the exact date like a pop quiz you're going to study the material in class and at home so that when it comes up you can work through the difficult problems on this for example math Pop Quiz so that you can pass it the same goes with sort of these challenges that we experience in life when you go to therapy or you read spiritist teachings and you learn these different techniques to work through these challenges um it works the same way it allows you to to evolve more and to work through these um states of mental imbalance lot easier thank you yeah it's so amazing that today's youth is growing with more awareness of therapy although there still is some stigma around it so it's really important like you said Bella to to share that and to know that therapy is a great tool at any stage of your life so thank you um Sophia what about you what are some things you can do in um moments of mental imbalance one thing we can do oops uh one thing we can definitely do is is um ask for help you know the first step is always recognizing that we need help um and the second step is asking for it and there's there's different ways we can do this and there is a a skill that we can use it's called deer man um it's two acronyms split deer and man um and it's a way that you can ask for help um the D is like describing the situations you describe what's going on you know I have a bunch of homework I have a test coming up that I don't know anything about just very real trust me me um and then uh you know just expressing it factually what is going on

s going on you know I have a bunch of homework I have a test coming up that I don't know anything about just very real trust me me um and then uh you know just expressing it factually what is going on then the E is expressing your emotions using eye statements you know I feel this I feel stressed out I feel anxious I feel worried I feel sad whatever it is that you feel you put you put you say I feel and then you put your feeling and then the A and dear is assert your needs you need to assert what you what you want you know I feel stressed so I need someone to help me with my homework I feel worried so I need someone to help me study to make sure that I know the material you know you make sure you really say what you need help with how you need the help and the r is reinforcing reinforcing with positive things you know if you help me I will do good and everything will be all right I get good grades if I ask for help my my my suffering or my difficult situation will be a lot easier because I have someone there with me um another way we can ask for help is by calling numbers you know there's certain numbers that we can call you know we can call 911 for emergencies we can call 988 which is the national uh mental health or Suicide Hotline but I don't recommend calling it if you are very close to committing suicide because they will put you on hold no they do it's unfortunate they will put you on hold um there's like eight 800 656 4673 which is a sexual assault line 866 331 9474 which is the domestic or Dating Violence line and 800 931 2237 which is an eating disorder line so there are different numbers for specific problems that people are suffering with that you can call if you need the help and you don't have anyone to ask thank you so much Sophia it's so important for us to have aware awareness of those um hotlines and resources and a lot of towns and districts do have their own resources so definitely um do some research online because um town sometimes have specific phone numbers

awareness of those um hotlines and resources and a lot of towns and districts do have their own resources so definitely um do some research online because um town sometimes have specific phone numbers you can call so thank you Sophia sorry um what about you Gabe what about you gent great job sopia so much right prayer when you pray or I say anything about it where does it have to come from your heart right you have to know what you want if you're just saying oh I want this I want that thank you for this day thank you for this the prayer is not going to be that effective and if you're having a stressful day right if you're angry if you're upset if you're confused if you're annoyed the right answer is to pray praying can give you answers all right and on question 660 of the spirit's book it states that when you pray God sends good spirits towards your way and that can help you evolve right because the good spirits are guiding you towards the right path right but it's up to you if you really want to choose that path or not and like I said before prayers can give you answers but does that mean that spirit is literally going to pop up next to you and just be like hey go do that no right unless you're extensive medium with that type of mediumship but most likely the spirit probably won't literally tell you the answer because again you have free will you can do what you want but it's up to you if you want to choose that path or not thank you so much Gabriel so um what are some activities that youth can participate to help them achieve mental balance um we'll start with Sophia on this one so one of the things that I do is I use poetry as a way to be able to express my emotions effectively you know I can't sometimes when it's all like bottled up inside you and you got that thing inside your belly and inside your chest you're like you can't say it and so when you put when it's put put into a written format it's like really neat and it's just all out there you know um and I'm able to essentially put ugly things

chest you're like you can't say it and so when you put when it's put put into a written format it's like really neat and it's just all out there you know um and I'm able to essentially put ugly things into pretty words yeah and it's a very it's also a very great way to talk about uncomfortable topics so I I wrote this PO oh where is my poem I wrote this poem um couple months ago and I think it's a really great example of this so if you'll have me I would like to present my poem which is called the comfort of s Sadness the comfort of sadness hugs you after it beats you with insults kisses you after feeding dead thoughts in your head the comfort of sadness the love that pours from the blood on your wrist the tired you feel after spending all day in bed the urge you feel to push away from everyone just for the comfort of sadness like a mosquito bite you're told not to itch but the itching feels so good you feel Bliss and fulfilling what you felt needed to be done and that is the comfort of sadness trapping us in a cage of Illusions and misery twisting with its hands the way we view reality buying us black and white glasses and a world full of color and telling us no one sees the world this way but you and that is the comfort of sadness to make you feel different and special So You Don't Go Near no one else to make you you know forcing you to not believe in yourself a toxic dependent relationship on emotion that chains you to its feet and says we're friends the strange comfort of sadness and it's hypnotic pool that leaves us drowning forever and and that that poem was about essentially depression I mean you don't I put it in a way where even if you don't have depression you can sort of understand things that I go through with depression and so that's yeah that's an example of how I use my poetry to to express my emotions and get people to understand what I'm talking about even if they don't feel it themselves absolutely another round of applause for that beautiful poem

of how I use my poetry to to express my emotions and get people to understand what I'm talking about even if they don't feel it themselves absolutely another round of applause for that beautiful poem thank you so much for sharing that and again this really is an incredible group of Youth um Gabriel what what do you think what are activities youth can participate to help them achieve mental balance well one of them obviously music right but I'm not talking about any style of music right I'm specifically gonna talk about classical music classical music can be a form of meditation right if you put a nice relaxing piece of classical music do you think you're going to be like hyper all over the place most likely not right you're going to relax and your spirit also Elevate right the the room like the it changes right um classical music can also stimulate your brain right so for the younger people here when you listen to classical music before a big test right or before a quiz you're most likely to remember what you studied than if you listen to any other Style with music classical music can also help you connect with the spirituality all right like mostly like the calm soothing pieces from like Beethoven Mozart chopan they can all help you connect with God right who doesn't want to be connected with God here right everyone does and it can also inspire you to do things let's say a poet right he's about to write a poem the poem The Poet can listen to classical music and get Inspirations from the music to write out the poem or same thing with the musician if a musician reads A poem he can also get the inspiration from it and write a piece of music down that is what happened to Antonio Vivaldi he based his famous Four Seasons on a poem and in the book spiritism in the Arts published in 1922 by Leon Deni it states that Beethoven is working with a certain medium for a spirit is Anthem that is soon to be published that's a little fun fact yeah awesome and yeah as we heard Gabriel's beautiful music it really is

es that Beethoven is working with a certain medium for a spirit is Anthem that is soon to be published that's a little fun fact yeah awesome and yeah as we heard Gabriel's beautiful music it really is inspiring and puts us in the right mood and the right um vibration Sophia what about you what activity do you think can help uh you I mean sorry Bella what activity do you um think youth can participate in to help them achieve mental balance so for me um I love dance and theater um there are two ways ways that I can express myself but also learn um and really quick just to bridge everything all of these sort of activities that we're talking about are really healthy coping mechanisms um when you're going through mental imbalances or working through stuff and when you feel something that you have a passion for um and that you and that you really really enjoy it's important to have that healthy coping mechanism there um because in our world today was talked about earlier there are a lot of in like unhealthy sorry coping mechanisms um such as we see among youth there's um drug and alcohol abuse um and a lot of other very unhealthy ways with dealing with mental imbalance and so um these activities that we do aren't just activities for for funsies but they're also they are fun but they're also for um being able to work through these mental imbalances in a safe and healthy way um and so for me I'm going to start off with dance and then I'll go into theater because they both connect um and so dance for me is a very um interpretive style of movement it's allows you to convey emotions that you have or emotions that you're working through in whatever piece that you're learning um and so sometimes the emotions that you have to convey are different from the ones that you're feeling or um and so you sort of have to work through what you're feeling in order to convey this emotion as best as you can um but sometimes it also it is the emotion that you're feeling that you're trying to convey which allows you

have to work through what you're feeling in order to convey this emotion as best as you can um but sometimes it also it is the emotion that you're feeling that you're trying to convey which allows you to make deeper and better choices as you're dancing um including sort of uh a huge one for me at least with processing emotion is improv dancing in which on the spot you come up with movements that just feel right um and it's a great way to be able to process emotion to channel whatever I'm feeling into a movement and sort of every movement I have having a purpose um and sort of oh also dance is exercise so those endorphins and such that you get from exercise make you feel really good and very energized um which is also a very healthy cop this coping mechanism just exercise in general um and then sort of moving into the theater side of it um it's a huge learning opportunity um first of all I just love performing it's a huge passion for me and like I said when you find something that you're passionate about it just it makes sort of life easier um and so uh but for me at least um watching theater um is almost like reading a book you can pinpoint oh I agree with what this character did I don't agree with what this character did this is what I would do instead sort of being able to see these really difficult situations and interpret them as I would do this if this was in this if I if I was in this situation or in my case maybe this could be applied to my situation sort of and so uh having these sort of stories and lessons um are super super important as evolve to so that we can learn without necessarily going through these trials um in addition a huge um portion of theater that I do as well as improv theater um which again means you're given like a prompt or a scenario and without a script without nothing you or a group of people will put together scene on the spot automatically and so in this especially with people who have anxiety you can really tunnel in and focus in the moment

cript without nothing you or a group of people will put together scene on the spot automatically and so in this especially with people who have anxiety you can really tunnel in and focus in the moment on each of the different um movements or choices that each of the people are making and again it allows you to learn I would do this next time or if I was this character I would have made this decision instead I like what this person did with this idea but I think I would have interpreted it differently sort of being able to analyze it and again apply it to our day-to-day lives um which I also do a lot when I'm directing when you're given a script again you can't watch it but when you have to look at each of the characters and sort of their different values and personalities and motives and being able to write a scene to block a scene that fits all of it um I could go on for for days about this but um but it's it's again it's just really important to have a healthy coping mechanism to get through these um periods of mental imbalance that we all face thank you so much Bella and such an incredible group again of teens of doing all activities that I don't do yet but I'm inspired to take up one of those or all of them um so definitely awesome to see some of the methods you all use to express yourselves and you know show others how they can put that in their lives so now um the question is how can spiritism help you uh with your journey to mental balance and we'll start with Bella on this one in case you weren't tired enough of me talking here I am again um so through spiritism we learn that our planet is in is we're in planetary Evolution always but um right now Earth is in this transition period we're we're a world of Trials and atonements but we are in a transition period And so that means a lot of the youth today are getting their last chances to sort of evolve as much as they can before we shift sort of in our planetary Evolution and so um spiritism along with offering sort of

t means a lot of the youth today are getting their last chances to sort of evolve as much as they can before we shift sort of in our planetary Evolution and so um spiritism along with offering sort of this explanation being like this is why there's a lot of challenges it also provides for us um again opportunities to learn different methods to work through these roadblocks that aren't meant to cut us off um and to fall into despair but for us to improve for us to evolve um and so um yeah so spiritism provides really good explanations for why um our youth need to be having these conversations about mental um how to achieve mental balance and work through these issues because we want to progress as far as we can um in this Incarnation thank you so much Bella Sophia what about you how can spiritism help youth with their journey to mental balance reincarnation it's really awesome um question 167 of the spirit book says what is the aim of reincarnation and the spirits say experation progressive Improvement of mankind without this aim would it be its Justice reincarnation helps improve and progress Humanity through multiple existences so our mental balance gets better as we go through reincarnation because we are constantly improving we always go forward we never go back um so we're always we're always going to go through trials and tribulations that will help us get better and in the spirit's book KC is writing on the chapter reincarnation and he writes it as though a sick man should say I have suffered enough today I do not choose to suffer tomorrow no matter what may be his unwillingness to suffer he will nevertheless be obliged to go on suffering not only on the tomorrow but day after day until he is cured we don't stop reincarnating we don't stop until we have reached Perfection which may not happen in this lifetime may not happen in the next lifetime May happen in the next 50,000 lifetimes but it is a goal we should always aim for even if we don't know what it is going to happen we

ay not happen in this lifetime may not happen in the next lifetime May happen in the next 50,000 lifetimes but it is a goal we should always aim for even if we don't know what it is going to happen we should always aim for that goal of you know being Perfection like Jesus and kak is still writing and he says the question growing out of the subject we are considering might be multiplied indefinitely for the in for the psychological and moral problems which can only find their solution and the paraly of existences are innumerable sometimes we cannot fix things in this lifetime sometimes we need reincarnation in order to help us improve and fix our mental imbalance and saying this to youth is really important because we believe that things are going to go on forever and that there is no end to everything um but even reincarnation isn't forever it might be a really long time but it isn't forever and it will help us get to where we to be if we do it right thank you so much Sophia uh Gabriel what about you how can spiritism help