The Spiritist View of Mental Disorders with Alexander Moreira-Almeida

Summary

Brazilian psychiatry professor Alexander Moreira-Almeida explains how Allan Kardec's 19th-century Spiritism holds that some mental disorders may stem from past-life memories or 'obsessing' discarnate spirits. In Brazil, dozens of psychiatric hospitals offer Spiritist therapies such as disobsession sessions with mediums and laying on of hands alongside conventional care. He also describes the first randomized controlled trial of these therapies and the criteria psychiatrists use to tell genuine mediumship apart from mental illness.

Key takeaways

• 1Allan Kardec was the pen name of French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, born in 1804, who coined the word 'Spiritism' after investigating mediums from about age 50.
• 2Kardec corresponded with several hundred spiritualist groups in more than 30 countries and accepted only information confirmed consistently by multiple mediums.
• 3A national survey found that half of Brazilian Catholics believe in reincarnation, and Brazil has dozens of Spiritist psychiatric hospitals dating back to the 1920s.
• 4Physician Bezerra de Menezes (died 1900) and psychiatrist Inácio Ferreira (active in the 1950s-60s) published on the spiritual causes of mental disorders.
• 5A randomized, double-blind controlled trial of Spiritist therapy is underway in a Spiritist psychiatric hospital, funded by the research foundation of the state of Minas Gerais.
• 6Chico Xavier reportedly produced about 500 books through psychography, and Divaldo Franco about 200, including a 'psychological series' attributed to the spirit Joanna de Ângelis that links Spiritism with Jung and Viktor Frankl.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

How can we help these people who are suffering from obsessing spirits? So he used mediums in trying to evoke, to call this obsessing spirit and try to develop a kind of psychotherapy with these obsessing spirits in trying to understand the reasons why they are so angry and trying to do some harm. Many situations would be related to previous life, some conflicts from previous life. So in this mediumistic sense, he tried to talk to these obsessing spirits and try to remove them from this revenge or this harmful behavior. And in this sense would be causing relief to the patient. In addition to what he called disobsession, sometimes people call it spirit release therapy, nowadays, but Kardec called it disobsession. Keep watching to learn more. The new Thinking Allowed magazine issue 10 on UFOs and UAP is now ready for free download. And you can also order beautiful printed copies. Go to newthinkingallowed.org New Thinking Allowed is presented by the California Institute for Human Science, a fully accredited university offering Distant Learning graduate degrees that focus on mind, body, and spirit. The topics that we cover here, we are particularly excited to announce new degrees emphasizing parapsychology and the paranormal. Visit their website at C-I-H-S dot E-D-U. Book 4 in the new Thinking Allowed dialogue series is Charles T. Tartt, Seventy Years of Exploring Consciousness and Parapsychology, now available on Amazon. Hello and welcome. I'm Jeffrey Mishlove. Today, we will be exploring the spiritist perspective of mental disorders. My guest is Dr. Alexander Moira Almeida, who is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Federal University of Jus de Fora in Brazil. He is the past Chair of the Section on Spirituality of the World Psychiatric Association. ...

Excerpt from New Thinking Allowed, Aug 23, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.