THE SPIRITIST SOCIETY of FLORIDA
Organized in 1982

Edgar Crespo, Director

"Unshakable faith is that, which can stand face to face
with reason, in all epochs of humanity." Kardec

June 2004

ILLNESSES

In the Spanish version (translated into English by Y. Limoges) of Kardec’s The Gospel According to Spiritism, Chapter 28, Collection of Spiritist Prayers, section Prayers for the Sick and Obsessed - For those Who Are Sick, regarding physical illness in the Preface it states: “Sicknesses are part of the trials and tribulations of earthly life; they are inherent in the material grossness of our material bodies and the inferiority of the planet we inhabit. Passions and excesses of all kinds are at the root of many unhealthy conditions, many are hereditary. In more morally and physically advanced worlds, the physical organism, is more purified and less material, and is not subject to the same illnesses nor undermined by the havoc created by the passions.” In summary, the rest of this section states:1) we need to resign ourselves to the conditions of the inferiority of our world until we can merit placement in a better one; 2) But, we still need to do whatever is humanly possible to try and improve our situation and it is our duty to do so, through the knowledge of science via medicines and medical treatments; and, 3) Spiritists know that there exists the power of magnetism by fluidic action and, there is also the beneficial influence of fervent prayer. These last two are the positive action of natural laws.

In addition, a person should strive to keep as healthy (good diet and exercise) as possible the body God has given you for this incarnation. We strongly encourage that if a person feels sick or have an illness, they should first seek the assistance, advice, and treatment from the medical profession. A person then may seek assistance at a Spiritist Center. They may also do both concurrently as well. We can also add to the above the aging process that all humans suffer upon this planet that are also trials we each must bear; the vigor of youth leaves us in the winter of our years, many times in a helpless and debilitating physical and mental state. Relatives and friends need to show compassion and patience with the elderly and aid them as they can.

There are some sicknesses which manifest as physical, emotional, and mental illnesses which can be attributed strictly to the negative fluidic influences of ignorant spirits (influencing from the spirit world). In the Preface For Those who are Obsessed, it states: “Spirits with bad intent [persons who exhibit evil tendencies who have died and whose spirits are now in the spirit world] encircle the earth and are a consequence of the moral inferiority of this planet. Their malevolent action forms a part of the afflictions that humanity suffers......Obsession, like sicknesses and all other trials and tribulations on this planet, may also be considered a trial or an expiation.” Many times, it is in these types of illnesses wherein physicians are unable to definitively diagnosis or treat these individuals. We will not be addressing the Spiritist Practice for dealing with obsession in this issue. But, we will say that fervent, sincere, and continuous prayer plays a powerful part in trying to alleviate these types of cases. Also remember, we each have our protector spirits who always watch out for us; there is a just cause for everything that happens to people; the spirit world is strictly controlled by the morally superior spirits who have authority over those inferior to them; and finally, nothing happens without God’s Permission.

REFLECTIONS UPON ILLNESS

While sitting in my cardiologist’s office I observed that most of the patients were older than my 57 years. Now I don’t consider 57 old but I don’t consider it young either. I was there for my yearly battery of tests to check the progression of my coronary heart disease. I currently have two metal stents; one stent each, in two of my arteries, to keep them from closing up. I also have diabetes and hypertension which also complicates matters and I have recently been informed I have the beginning of cataracts and that my sciatic nerve has now decided to interfere with my daily activities.

Medications! If I have to take more pills (13 of them daily) I will have to start keeping them organized in a tackle box! That does not even include my insulin shots. When my friends talk about their medication, I tell them when they reach the quantity I take, then they can complain.

Now there are days when all this overwhelms me and depression sets in and I sit and feel sorry for myself. But, all I have to do is look around me and see others who are literally fighting for their lives and cannot function without assistance. It seldom crosses my mind that there are people healthier than I, so whenever someone asks me how I am, I just reply, “I’m fine.”

Although I struggle with my daily health problems I know that there is a purpose and reason for it all. How I deal with them makes all the difference. I am grateful for my medical treatment and medication and try my best to follow my treatment plan as is my personal responsibility and duty as a Spiritist; to do anything else would be suicide.
Written by Jacqueline Benenati

A MOTHER’S STORY - A CHILD WITH A DISEASE
My mother took my sick daughter to the doctor as I had to go to work. Later, he called me at work and said, “Go to the hospital, your child will be there. Something is seriously wrong and tests need to be done.” My daughter was only 11 months old, a baby! When I saw her next, her eyes were rolled up into her head and she was lifeless in my mother’s arms. The doctors took her right away and told me to leave the room. I said, “No, I am staying!” They said nothing else and I stayed. I assume they knew by the look on my face I would never leave my child. Not knowing what was wrong with my baby was breaking my heart... as I prayed and tried to brace myself for the worst possible news. They took blood from her and she was placed in intensive care; they strapped both arms and both legs to a board shaped like a cross, wires hung all over her, and her tiny fingers and toes were all bloody from them pricking her to take blood tests. My husband finally arrived and upon seeing her like this, tears just streamed down his eyes.

The doctors finally notified us that she had the hereditary disease of juvenile diabetes (her blood sugar level had gone up to 500 - normal is under 120). Now, her body no longer made any insulin (vital to bringing energy to the cells of the body, she was literally starving to death although she was still eating). We would have to give her daily insulin injections, take daily urine and blood tests, monitor her diet, and have doctors examine and take blood from her every 3 months. We also heard about all possible serious complications (kidney dialysis, amputations, blindness, etc.). She had to stay in the hospital for a week while we learned to care for her. And, although this all sounded so terrible, I thanked God that it was not worse. We would just deal with it! I felt this even more so... as I came to know that the child (sick in the crib next to my daughter’s) had cancer and was also blind and deaf. How lesser the trial my own baby had, compared to this poor soul! What pity I felt for that child!

As I contemplated all of this, many thoughts rushed through my mind. As a Spiritist, I wondered what possible past life transgression could have precipitated this. As a medium, my spirit guides gently whispered to me, “She selected this trial herself.” Somehow, this knowledge made it easier to bear for me, as I would watch her become hysterical, screaming loudly whenever the doctors would take blood from her, very three months, over the many years. We went through many things: her attending summer diabetic camp with like children and we dealt with the issues of her hiding candy and donuts in her bedroom. But, she also did what other little girls did like ballet and girl scouts. As she got much older, the screams stopped, but not the suffering, and now after 22 years with this disease, other complications have set in due to diabetes’ devastating effects. But, we deal with each problem as it comes up as best we can; she, of course, more than I. But as she suffers, I as her mother, also do too.

She deserves a lot of credit for supporting this and our family is very proud of her. She graduated with honors from college, works full time at a good job, and is married to a dear man who loves her deeply. She recently gave birth to a daughter last October. We, including this baby now, will all have to bear the trials that still lie ahead. It will be a lifetime battle, but no matter what course this disease takes, we pray, with the assistance of God and our spirit protectors, we will be victorious at the end! Written by Yvonne Limoges

FACING DEATH

I first attended a Spiritist Center and learned about Spiritism 15 years ago (before this I knew nothing about it). I attended monthly meetings, listened at the services, and later asked questions; I still do. I believe in what the Spiritist Doctrine teaches and have no doubts about its truth. Throughout these years I felt I had done my best to be a good husband to my wife Yvonne, and a good father to my children. I felt I had been a good co-worker and a fairly good person in general.

Then unexpectedly, during a routine exam in 2001, I was told I had cancer. I had surgery and it was believed that it was all removed. But, that was not the case. So, as of June 2003, I have been undergoing chemo- therapy treatments. I still am. But... getting cancer I found, changed for the better, my perspective on life. It changed me for the better. Things that I thought were important, I found, really weren’t. I thought about life much differently and some of my priorities changed. I now felt that I may have taken some things for granted in my life that I shouldn’t have. I also realized that this was a situation that was out of my control and all that was left was to put my faith in God, my religious beliefs, and the comfort my family gave me.

Although I had no trouble believing in a spirit world and that death was not really the end, I was still afraid of dying because it still was an “unknown” to me. How was it going to be for me? What was I going to feel? Then... I had to have another surgery which was quite extensive and there was a long recuperation period. It was during this time that I realized, that basically, other then missing my family members, I really would not miss much else in this material world. I slowly started losing my fear regarding death and one day contemplating on life, it finally dawned on me, that there really was nothing to fear at all. This process took some time but I now have a sense of inner calmness regarding when my time may come. Talks with my wife and knowledge of Spiritism has been a great help. I know that God and the good spirits have helped me tremendously, even in allowing me to live this long, due to certain circumstances that seemed to have occurred seemingly by coincidence, but in my heart, I know were not. I have received spiritual magnetic treatments also, which I know have helped me physically and spiritually, to support this trial.

My advice to a person in my situation is: to keep a positive attitude, look at each day as precious, and not take even small simple things for granted. Prayer has been very helpful and reading the books on Spiritism, especially the stories of Father Germain, continue to give me great comfort. Written by Donald Limoges

(NOTE: We do not write about our personal experiences for show or to promote sympathy, but as examples of regular people with troubles like anyone else (as the great Spiritist author and poetess of Spain, Amalia Domingo Soler did, who suffered with blindness and poverty).We want to promote courage and for all to know that knowledge of Spiritism is a blessing in times of trial, for we truly know in our hearts that there is a just cause for them and we deserve every bit of whatever it is we are going through. But, we receive the chance to redeem ourselves and purify our souls! We also are extremely aware there are so many, much worse off than us.- Y.L.)

Below are two true life examples of persons who during material life endured terrible physical illnesses and suffering. The causes of these illnesses were discovered after their physical death when their spirits communicated through mediums from the spirit world. These are a summary of two spirit communications received by the mediums at Allan Kardec’s Spiritist Society of Paris, and taken from Anna Blackwell’s English translation of Kardec’s book Heaven and Hell:

Number One:
Madame B.... suffered from physical infirmities from the age of 5 months old until age 70, which always seemed to keep her on the verge of death. Three times she was poisoned by the experiments tried upon her by medical science, still so uncertain, and, her physical body ruined by drugs as much as by disease, left her with intolerable sufferings. She bore her illnesses with humility and resignation. Her daughter, who was a Spiritist, prayed to God to alleviate her mother’s sufferings but the spirit guides would only say that she should pray that her mother “be strengthened to bear them with patience and resignation......” They continued by saying “...every pain accepted by her as an expiation, effaces a blemish in her past and the sooner those blemishes are effaced, the sooner she will be happy.”

The spirits later revealed to the daughter that her mother was formerly a distinguished physician (a man in that existence) who had a large practice and was laden with wealth and honors. But, bent on acquiring all that was known to the science of his day, he submitted to trusting patients, experimental treatments, unbeknownst to them: a mother suffered so he could study her convulsions; an infant was subjected to certain experiments to determine the key to certain physical phenomena; the death of the aged was pitilessly hastened; a strong man was sacrificed so he could ascertain the action of some drug; and more. The daughter’s mother after her physical death, communicated to those members of the Society and confirmed all that the spirits had said about her and the cause of the physical suffering of her last incarnation.

Number Two:
A child of eight years old (left in an asylum by relatives who seldom came to see him) was deformed. His misshapen legs touched his neck and his bones seemed to protrude through his emaciated, sore covered body; his pain and sufferings were horrible. But, he was remarkably intelligent for his age and his gentleness, patience, and resignation inspired the admiration of all around him. One day he asked his doctor for more pills so he could sleep more, so his occasional groaning due to the horrible pain he was in, would not disturb the other patients. The doctor who took such pity on him, read to the boy whenever he had a free moment.

The child later died and his spirit was evoked by the Spiritist Society of Paris. The spirit of the boy communicated and told them that his last existence was one of a mission in which he requested, so that he could further his work of the purification of his soul. He said, “Those who saw me upon the earth beheld a child who bore his load of suffering without a murmur; from his patience they learned to bear their own sorrows with resignation, and their hearts were filled with confidence in God. Such was the aim of my short sojourn upon the earth.”

One of the spirit guides of the Society communicated and said,“Now the spirit of the suffering child has gained his full capabilities; he speeds through space with the power and the brightness of a sunbeam, visiting the weak and the humble, and saying to their hearts, ‘Hope and Courage!’”

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Newsletter edited by Yvonne Limoges
The Spiritist Society of Florida
5042 22 Avenue North
St. Petersburg, Florida U.S.A.
Website: www.ssfl.faresinsights.com
Email: ylimoges@aol.com
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