In general, in order to determine the origin of the disease we have to take into account many nuances that make it difficult to give a simple and brief answer. It is like an equation with many interacting variables that are difficult to isolate:

• free will, which determines our attitude in the face of adversity;
• bio-psycho-psycho-socio-spiritual factors of the present incarnation;
• bio-psycho-socio-spiritual factors from past incarnations;
• merits achieved through good works;
• divine mercy and the mercy of other human beings;
• the degree of consciousness or spiritual development.

Let's look at it through an example, and then perhaps it will be easier to put it into perspective. Any of us can ask ourselves: am I responsible for the organic injury that damages my body? Did I provoke it in any way?

The Spiritist Doctrine clearly answers yes, at least in part: mental factors and deliberate actions, which if not found in this incarnation will be found in previous ones, have predisposed my body to degenerative processes that have promoted disease; actions on myself and/or others that have transgressed the divine or natural laws that govern the physical and moral Universe. For example, the consumption of toxic substances, disproportionate consumption of healthy substances, physical and psychological aggressions to ourselves or others, etc.

As we all know, every effect generates a cause, and deviations have consequences.

The innumerable factors involved in each person will require a completely individual approach, as the causes that lead two people to suffer from the same disease can be very different and it is not possible to give the same explanation.

Any unnatural illness (physical or psychological) can and should be considered an illness of the soul,’ Joana tells us in a work called Plenitud, psychographed by the beloved Divaldo Franco,

"which still clings to sensations and chooses directions and actions that produce imbalance. In this phase, of immediate interests, a whole tangle of primitive passions drives the being in the direction of enjoyment, without the necessary ethics and feeling of superior choice, and throws it into the main areas of conflict that generate the disharmony of organic defences, which give way to the invasion of microbes and viruses that destroy its immunity. It can be said that [this] suffering is not imposed by God, constituting the choice of every creature".

The mentor continues later in the same work:

“[This kind of] disease is the result of an energetic imbalance of the body due to the fragility of the emotional state of the activating Spirit. Viruses, bacteria and other micro-organisms are not responsible for the presence of the disease (...). The moral and mental conduct of men when they cultivate the emotions of irritability, hatred, jealousy, resentment, vice, impregnates the organism and the nervous system with harmful vibrations which block the areas where healthy energy spreads, opening the field for the installation of disease".

In short, as Joanna says: "the root causes of illnesses are in the individual, who must examine himself, know himself in order to free himself from this type of suffering".

So far we have seen that, to a large extent, we become ill because of deviations in our moral conduct. But let us not forget the natural alterations of the organism in its interaction with the environment.

We know that there are factors inherent in our material condition which are not entirely our responsibility. Matter degrades naturally, the body which is a wonderful material instrument will suffer a completely natural wear and tear, which will produce imbalances and illnesses no matter how much we take care of ourselves. It is not immortal and eternal, unlike our Spirit. For example, with age, tissues lose elasticity and strength; we lose cells, which die from the wear and tear of the Vital Fluid, compromising the sense organs, the quality and quantity of hair, hormonal, neural, skeletal changes, etc.

In this case, the cause of illnesses resulting from these natural processes is beyond our control. Joanna de Angelis, in Plenitude, explains that illnesses are inevitable in human existence, due to the molecular constitution of the body, to the biological phenomena to which it is subject in its incessant transformations. Only the Pure Spirits do not suffer from this type of illnesses, since they do not need to reincarnate in matter, as Kardec teaches us in the answer to question 226 of The Spirits' Book.

In any case, Joanna de Ângelis consoles us by answering the question of what is the point of being ill. Illness and suffering are not divine punishments as some mythological traditions would have us believe, giving the role of vengeance to the gods of Olympus:

"As the chisel acts on the rough stone and cuts it, diseases are chiselling mechanisms for the soul to awaken its potential and shine beyond the organic vessel that imprisons it".

In the book The Integral Man - and with this we end - Joanna de Angelis explains that:

"Suffering is part of the mechanism of evolution on Earth. In the plant and animal kingdoms it is found in the embryonic perception of plants, which suffer from environmental aggression and hostility, pollution and degenerative processes. Among animals, from the least expressive to the most biologically advanced, suffering manifests itself in nervous sensitivity, which serves to produce new and more perfect biotypes, in constant adaptation and harmony of the latent psyche in them".

In the Human Being, suffering is a motivating source of the struggles of emotional growth and maturation of the personality, which begins to understand existence in a less dreamy way and more in accordance with reality’. That is why our mission, the mission of the person who, like any of us, is going through a difficulty, is to persist in the search for the solution, whatever the cost, in the acquisition of that adjustment with the Divine or Natural Laws, in particular with the Law of Love and Charity. We can fall ten times, a hundred times, a million times! We may make the same mistake over and over again. But we must always get up and keep moving forward. Never give up.