MEDIUNIDADE E EXPERIÊNCIA RELIGIOSA: Trânsito entre religião e saúde mental.

Abstract

Mediumship related to the religious experience and mental health is the theme of this paper, which has the spiritual mediumship as its specific object of investigation. The present study was developed based on various fields of human knowledge, such as anthropology, psychopathology, knowledge about mental health and its recent achievements. Concepts of religious experience, mediumship and psychopathology are worked in order to clarify questions which were inserted in this study, and these questions have to do with mediumship, religious experience and mental health. The methodology used was the review of the classical bibliography with concepts and cases that exemplify psychic manifestations. From this review, assumptions were made on the central theme - mediumship, religious experience and mental health. Concepts of umbanda and kardecist spiritism were used to illustrate and identify the diversity of the theme. From the perspective of psychic suffering, mediumship, religious experience and mental health were addressed together in order to show that it is possible to develop mental health experiencing suffering and anguish, since they are welcomed and thus able to restore the notion of the self. This study contributes to the understanding of mediumship as religious experience which leads towards the good exercise of mental health, since individuals who are able to develop their psychic experiences become important for the well-being of the whole community.