250. There is, then, only disgust, and not danger, for any medium who will not allow himself to be abused, because he cannot be deceived ; it is entirely other wise with fascination, for then the dominion the spirit assumes over him whom he invades has no bounds. The only thing to do with him is to try to convince him he is deceived, and to lead his obsession to a case of simple obsession ; but it is not always easy, if it is not even sometimes impossible. The ascendency of the spirit may be such that he makes the one fascinat ed deaf to every kind of reasoning, and, when the spirit commits some gross scientific heresy, makes him go so far as to doubt if science itself is not wrong. As we have said, he generally takes advice in very ill part ; criticism annoys, irritates him, and makes him dislike those who do not partake his admiration. To suspect his' spirit is almost a profanation in his eyes, and that is all the spirit asks, for what he wants is, that we should bend before his word.
One of them exercised on a person of our acquaintance a most extraordinary fascination ; we invoked him, and after some romancing, seeing that he could not delude us as to his identity, he ended by confessing that he was not the one whose name he had taken. Having asked why he so deceived this person, he answered in these words, which very clearly expresses the character of spirits of this kind : " I lookedfor a man I could lead ; I havefound him, and here I stay'.' " But if we should make him see clearly, he will drive you away." " We'll see about that ! " As there is none more blind than he who will not see, when we find the uselessness of every attempt to open the eyes of the fascinated, the best thing to do is, to leave him to his delusions. A patient cannot be cured who persists in keeping his disease, and even delights in it.
