What do you as an animist think about mental illness? I understand that you feel that we should work with our "naturally human" sense of intelligence to ward off viral and fungal infections, but what about mental illness? On one hand, the purpose of medicine is to make one's life easier and thus to prolong it. On the other hand, you suggest that "if there's a cancer growing inside of you, the gods aren't on your side against it, but that doesn't mean you have to throw up your hands and allow it to destroy your life; defend yourself against it with every resource you can bring to bear" (Providence, page 162).From one animist to another, I want to know how mental illness is considered: as another illness of the body, like diabetes or infection, or as a beast of another kind. • Ishmael.org, the work & philosophy of Daniel Quinn