Abstract: This article analyzes the limits of the notion of religious conversion based on an ethnography carried out in a spiritist therapeutic center in the city of Florianópolis. In order to understand the adhesion of former patients as volunteers of the institution, I develop the notion of therapeutic conversion and use elements of the theory of gift (Mauss, 2003), considering that both embrace the diversity and plasticity of affiliations and religious identifications expressed by volunteers of the institution. Fieldwork revealed a plurality of forms of engagement that does not correspond to the idea of religious conversion, if this notion is considered in terms of a radical transformation of religious belonging, exclusive adhesion to a religious institution and a orthodox identity conception.
Key words:
Spiritism; Conversion; Gift; Cancer.