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What is Spiritism? > Chapter II—Elementary notions of Spiritism > Dangers Mediums Might Encounter > 76
76. An important fact to consider is that obsession, whatever its nature, is independent of mediumship and may be found in every degree — especially the third kind - in a large number of individuals who have never even heard of Spiritism. In fact, since spirits have existed in every age, they must have exerted the same influence in every age. Mediumship is not a cause but only a means of manifesting such influence; hence, one can state with certainty that every obsessed medium must be enduring, in some way and frequently in the commonest acts of life, the effects of this influence, and that apart from mediumship it would express itself through other effects often, attributed to those mysterious illnesses that escape every investigation by medicine. By means of mediumship, the malfeasant being betrays its presence; without mediumship, it is a hidden enemy no one suspects.