RTE No 20 Interior - Road to Emmaus Journal

Road to Emmaus Vol. V, No. 2 (#17)the golden thread of faithMARINA: Physical laws are subject to spiritual laws; physical and spiritualnatures are interconnected. When you pray for a man he can become awareof his condition and give his consent to be treated. Because of the naturalhierarchy of the body’s submission to the soul, the soul has to come to certainrealizations for the body to be successfully treated. Alcoholics, drugaddicts, and patients with psychological problems that are not bound toorganic or endogenic disease receive much help through conversationsabout the meaning of life, man’s place in this creation, and God. They candistance themselves from their disease, and begin to work with it.I frequently meet some of my former patients at church. Many of them(sometimes even those with organic diseases) no longer need to be hospitalized,and require less, or even no medication. They pray very much,attend church services and visit holy places. Their disease is still with them,their psyches remain altered, and though one can see they aren’t normal,they are no longer dangerous to themselves or other people and don’t needto be hospitalized.One of my patients, when leaving church, says goodbye to the icons as wesay goodbye to our friends. The saints are real people for him. For us, St.Nicholas the Wonderworker is part of history and belongs to the heavenlyrealm, but for my patient, the saint is a living person, a neighbor. Leavingthe church he says: “Good luck, Nicholas, I wish you all the best, see younext time.” I speak in such a way to other people, but he speaks so to theicons, smiling and bowing to each one.MARINA: Yes, times have changed and one can do it easily. There are alwayspeople who, when you begin to talk to them about God, say: “If I ever needto talk about God, I will go to a priest. I have come to you as a doctor.” Then,I don’t speak to them about spiritual life, but in every case, I attempt to.After many years at the hospital, I left to work in a large bank as the residentpsychologist. I am still there, and as I counsel people I pray mentally.Some people complain that they feel bad because of my “negative influence.”They develop a headache or believe that I have affected them in anunconstructive way. Others become quite calm and decide to undergo treatmentto quit smoking or drinking or whatever their problem requires.When people are very distressed, I sometimes read the prayer, “Let Godarise…” aloud for them. A priest once asked me: “What right have you toread ‘Let God arise…’ ?”, but my spiritual father says that only demons forbidone to pray. So I pray.RTE: Do you think that this simply his imagination, or has his illness somehowpierced a natural barrier to the other world?MARINA: This isn’t an hallucination. For him the two realities are equal, but hehas no control or check over his perceptions. Nevertheless, ill people do sometimeshave hallucinations: some of them see angels, others see demons.Clinically, it is always considered an hallucination or delirium, but I don’tknow if sometimes it might be a higher sensitivity that allows them to discernthings beyond the average threshold of perception. I think that perhaps theyperceive something that really exists, but they interpret the spiritual realitythrough the framework of their disease. It’s not a simple objective experience.RTE: In the West, it is increasingly frowned upon to talk about God in theworkplace. Can you do this as a psychiatrist in Russia?2223