Studies about the possessed of MorzineThe causes of obsession and the means of fighting it
The observations we have made about the terrible epidemic that impacted the region of Morzine, in the commune of Haute-Savoie, and continues to impact these regions leaves little doubt as to the importance of our cause. However, in order to support our opinion, we must provide some explanations that support the comparison between the disease and other identical cases so that the origin leaves no doubt to those familiar with the Spiritist phenomena. These observations illustrate the results of the invisible world upon humanity.
It is necessary to go back to the source of the phenomenon and track its evolution starting from the simplest cases and at the same time explain how it happened. From that we will be in a much better position to fight the illness. Even though this subject is addressed in The Mediums’ Book in the chapter about obsession and in several articles from this Review, we will provide a few new considerations that will make it easier to understand.
The first point necessary to be understood is about the nature of the Spirits from a moral point of view. Since the Spirits are no more than the souls of people and since not everyone is good, it is not sensible to admit that the spirit of a bad person will suddenly change. Otherwise the punishment of a future life would be unnecessary. Experience confirms this theory, or even better, the theory comes from experience. It shows us the relationship with the invisible world together with Spirits of sublime wisdom and knowledge and others that are ignoble and still full of vices and human passions.
After the death the soul of a good person will be a good spirit as a good spirit when incarnate will be a good person. For the same reason a perverse spirit will be a perverse spirit in the spiritual world and a perverse spirit when incarnate could not be a virtuous person and all that up until the time when the spirit would not have improved yet or felt the need to improve because from the moment that the spirit enter the path of progress there is a gradual improvement and the spirit undresses from the bad instincts and continually rises in the hierarchy of the Spirits until achieves perfection that is accessible to all of us for God could not have created beings eternally devoted to evil and misfortune. Hence the visible and invisible worlds interpenetrate alternately and incessantly if we can say so in two different states. This consideration is very important to better understand the solidarity that does exist between them.
Since the Earth is an inferior world, meaning there has been little advancement, it seems reasonable that the large majority of the Spirits that populate the planet both in the spiritual world as incarnate, must be composed of imperfect Spirits that do more bad than good, hence the predominance of evil on Earth. Now since Earth is also a place of atonement it is the contact with evil that make people unhappy, otherwise if all were good, everyone would be happy. This is a level not yet achieved by our planet which is the destination assigned by God. All the tribulations experienced here by good individuals or Spirits are the natural consequence of its state of inferiority. We may say that Earth is the Botany-Bay of the worlds. There you find the savage primitivism and civilization, criminality and atonement. It is then reasonable to imagine the invisible world as formed by a huge and compact population, so to speak, involving Earth and agitating like in a vessel. As the air at the bottom is heavy and unhealthy, the moral ambient is also unhealthy, for it is corrupted by the incarnation of impure Spirits. To resist all that one needs is a powerful moral strength. Let us say that such a state of affairs is inherent to the inferior worlds but that these worlds follow the law of progress and once the required time is done God cleans them and expels the imperfect Spirits that will no longer incarnate there and be replaced by other more advanced ones who will then ensure the kingdom of happiness, justice and peace. It is a revolution of that kind that is in preparation right now.
Let us now examine the mode of reciprocal action between incarnate and discarnate Spirits.
We know that the Spirits are covered by a vapor like envelope that operates like a true fluidic body that we call the “perispirit” and whose elements are taken from the universal or cosmic fluid, the principle of all things.
When the spirit unites with the body it lives there with its perispirit and serves as a link between the spirit and corporeal matter. The perispirit is the intermediary of the sensations perceived by the spirit but the perispirit is not confined in the body like inside a box. Due to its fluidic nature it irradiates externally and forms a kind of atmosphere around the body like a vaporous cloud. But the fluids around an unhealthy body are also unhealthy and it contaminates the air in places where there is a gathering of many unhealthy individuals. Since those fluids are infused by the qualities of the body, the perispirit is also infused by the qualities of the thoughts of the spirit and hence irradiates such qualities around the body.
Another area to respond to immediately is about the theory that Spiritism offers concerning the state of the soul. Spiritism is accused of materializing the soul whereas according to religion the soul is purely immaterial. Like the majority of objections this one results from an incomplete and superficial study. Spiritism has never defined the nature of the soul. Spiritism does not state that the perispirit is the soul. The word “perispirit” actually means the opposite for it indicates the presence of an envelope around the spirit.
What does The Spirits’ Book say about it? “The human Being is composed of three things: the soul or the spirit, the intelligent principle; the body, a material envelope and the perispirit, a semi material, fluidic envelope that serves as a link between the spirit and the body.”
From the fact that the soul keeps its fluidic envelope after death one cannot deduce that the soul and the envelope are one in the same thing, in the same way that the body and its outfit are not the same or the soul and the body are not the same. Spiritism does not subtract anything from the immateriality of the soul. Spiritism only gives it two envelopes instead of one during the physical life and only one after the death of the body. This is not a hypothesis but the result of observation.
It is with the support of such envelope that one can better understand the individuality of the soul and better explain its action upon matter.
Let us return to our subject.
Perispirit for its fluidic nature is essentially mobile and flexible. It is placed directly into action as an agent of the spirit and projects rays by the will of the spirit. It is through these rays that it allows the transmission of thoughts since in some way it is animated by the intelligence of the spirit. Since the perispirit is the link that unites the spirit to the body, it is through the perispirit that the spirit transmits to the body the movements that express its will. It is also through the perispirit that the bodily sensations are transmitted to the spirit. After the body is destroyed by death, the spirit no longer acts and no longer feels but through its fluidic body or perispirit. For that reason, it acts more easily and freely considering that the body is an obstacle. All this is the result of observation.
Suppose now that two persons are side by side each involved by their own perispiritual atmosphere
– allow us the neologism. Those two fluids get in touch. If they are antipathetic they will unsuspectedly feel a kind of uneasiness when approaching one another. If, on the contrary, they were moved by a kind and good feeling there will be attraction. That is why two persons understand one another and even foretell their thoughts without speaking. Something tells us that a given person that is before us may be feeling this or that. That “something” is the expansion of the perispiritual fluid of the other person that gets in touch with ours, a kind of electrical conductor of our thoughts. From that one can understand that the Spirits whose fluidic envelopes are much freer than in the state of incarnate do not need articulated sounds to understand one another.
The perispiritual fluid of the incarnate is thus activated by the spirit. If, by its own will the spirit say casts its rays upon a given individual the rays penetrate the individual. Hence the more or less powerful magnetic action that follows the will; more or less beneficial according to the nature of the rays if good or bad, more or less reassuring because they can penetrate and act upon the organs and in certain cases reestablish the normal state. The influence of the moral qualities of a magnetizer is well-known. What an incarnate spirit can do by throwing one’s own fluid onto another person the spirit can equally do when discarnate since it has the same fluid. Hence the spirit can magnetize and, according to its good or bad nature the action may be good or bad.
Therefore, we easily realize the nature of the impressions that we receive according to the environment where we are located. If a meeting is formed by persons driven by bad feelings the ambient air is impregnated by their thoughts. As a consequence, the good souls will experience an uneasiness analogous to a physical discomfort caused by ill exhalations: the soul is asphyxiated. If, on the contrary, the persons are driven by pure intentions we find ourselves in a vivifying atmosphere with a healthy air. The effect will also be similar in an environment full of Spirits depending if they are good or bad.
Having that well understood we then arrive to the material action of the errant Spirits upon the incarnate Spirits and from there to the explanation of mediumship.
If a spirit wishes to act upon a person, the spirit approaches and surrounds that person as to speak with its own perispirit as if with a mantle. The fluids mix; the two thoughts and will confound and then the spirit may utilize that body as if his; make the body act, speak, write, draw and etc. These are the mediums. If the spirit is good the action will be kind and beneficial and the spirit will only bring good things; if the spirit is bad then evil things will be provoked; if perverse and malicious the person may be embarrassed as in a trap; it can even paralyze the will and reason which are muffled by the fluids of the spirit like a fire that is put out with a blanket of water; the spirit incites the person to think, speak and act, driving the person against his/her own will and even to extravagance and ridicule. In a word the spirit magnetizes the individual and lead him/her to a kind of moral cataleptic state transforming the person in a blind instrument of the Spirits’ will. Such is the cause of obsession, fascination and subjugation that show in several degrees of intensity. The name of possession is generally given to the paroxysm of subjugation. It must be noticed that in such a state the individual often has conscience of the ridicule and embarrassment of what is forced to do as if forced by a stronger person to move arms, legs and tongue against one’s own will.
Here is an interesting example.
In a small meeting that took place in Bordeaux and during an evocation the medium who was quite civil and of gentle character suddenly begins to knock the table, stands up and looks around with a threatening expression showing his fists to the attendees, speaking in a foul language and wanting to throw an inkpot at the audience. This scene both shocking and unexpected lasted for approximately ten minutes after which the young man recovered his customary calm apologizing for what had just happened saying that he knew very well what he had done but that he could not avoid it.
When we learned about the fact we asked for explanation in one session at the Parisian Society. The answer we got was that the spirit who had provoked the event was more of a deceiver than a bad spirit and that he just wanted to have fun with the fear of the audience. A proof of the veracity of the explanation is that it did not happen again and the medium continued to receive excellent communications as before. It is important to clarify that what has likely excited the verve of that jester spirit. Mr. Beck, a former administrator of the Bordeaux theater orchestra, experienced a singular phenomenon several years before his death. Every evening before leaving the theater he had the impression that a man would jump on his back, riding on his shoulders all the way up to his house when the supposed individual would get off from his shoulders and he would feel free. Some people wanted to evoke him in that session and ask for an explanation. That was when the con spirit decided to replace Mr. Becker and make the medium represent a diabolic scene because he undoubtedly found the necessary fluidic conditions to support him. What was just an accident on that occasion sometimes takes a more permanent character when the spirit is bad victimizing the individual and giving the appearance of madness. We say appearance because madness properly speaking always results from an alteration of the brain whilst in this case the organs are healthy as in the case of the young man that we have just mentioned. Therefore, there is no real madness against which the medication of conventional therapeutics is useless as demonstrated by experience. Besides, they can produce what does not exist. The homes of alienated people count on many individuals of this kind to whom the contact with other disturbed patients can only be very damaging because this state always denotes a certain moral weakness. Together with all varieties of pathological madness it is then convenient to add the obsessive madness that requires special treatment. However, how can a materialistic doctor establish or even admit the difference?
Bravo! Our adversaries will celebrate. Impossible to describe in a better way the dangers of Spiritism and that is why we are right in prohibiting it.
Wait a moment! What we said demonstrates precisely its utility. Do you believe that the bad Spirits that dwell among the human beings wait to be called in order to exercise their bad influence? Considering that the Spirits exist since the beginning of times they represent the same role for such a role is in their nature. The proof of this fact is in the large number of obsessed or possessed people even before mentioning the subject of Spirits or Spiritism or mediums. The action of the Spirits, good or bad, is then spontaneous. The action of the bad ones produces a significant disturbance in the moral and even physical organization and which are attributed to wrong causes for ignorance of the cause. The bad Spirits are invisible enemies that are more dangerous the less we are suspicious of their action. By bringing them to the open Spiritism reveals a new cause of certain illnesses of humanity. Once the cause is known, people will no longer try to combat the problem through means that we now know are useless, looking instead of other more efficient ways. Who led to the discovery of that cause? Mediumship. It was through mediumship that those occult enemies betrayed their presence. Mediumship did to those Spirits what the microscope did to the infinitely small: revealed a new world.
Spiritism does not attract the bad Spirits. Spiritism discovered them and provided the means of paralyzing their actions and consequently keeping them away. Spiritism did not attract evil since this has always existed. On the contrary it brought the remedy to the evil by showing its causes.
Once the action of the invisible world is recognized it will provide the key to a number of misunderstood phenomena and science, now enriched with this new law, will see new horizons opening up ahead. When is that going to happen? When science no longer professes materialism as materialism hinders its advancement and imposes an impassable barrier.
Before we talk about the remedy, let us explain a situation that impacts many Spiritists, particularly in the cases of simple obsessions. The first type of interaction is one that occurs frequently and manifests itself through writing or hearing. The second type occurs less frequently and happens when a bad spirit interrupts a good spirit in the middle of a communication. The question is if the bad Spirits are more powerful than the good ones.
Refer to what we said in the beginning about the way the spirit acts and let us figure out a medium that is involved by the perispiritual fluid of a bad spirit. To have the fluid of a good spirit acting upon the medium, it is necessary that the fluid penetrates that envelope and it is clear that light can hardly penetrate a thick fog. According to the level of obsession the fog will be permanent, tenacious or intermittent and consequently easier or more difficult to dissipate.
Our Parma correspondent, Mr. Superchi, sent us drawings made by a clairvoyant that perfectly represents this situation. In one of them we can see the hand of the medium surrounded by a thick dark cloud, an image of the perispiritual fluid of the bad Spirits trespassed by a light beam that illuminates the hand. It is the good fluid that drives the hand and opposes the action of evil.
In the other one, the hand is in the shadow and light is around the mist that cannot be penetrated. What limits the hand in the drawing must be extended to the whole body of the medium.
There is still the question of knowing if the good spirit is less powerful than the bad one. It is not the good spirit that is weaker. It is the medium that is not strong enough to get rid of the wrapping mantle and to stay away from the tightening arms with which – it must be said – the medium sometimes enjoys. In such a case it is clear that the good spirit cannot dominate since the other one is preferred.
Let us now admit that there is in the medium the wish of relieving oneself from this wrapping fluidic envelope like an outfit that is wet. The desire is not enough and not even the will is always sufficient. This is about a fight against the adversary. Well, in a fistfight it is the stronger one that succeeds. In this case the fight is between Spirits. It is still the stronger that will be victorious. Here the strength is in the authority of the spirit and such authority is subordinated to a moral superiority. Moral superiority is like the sun that dissipates the mist through the power of its rays. Endeavor to be good; to become better if already good; to purify one’s imperfections; in a word to morally rise as much as possible such is the way of acquiring the necessary power to command inferior Spirits in order to keep them away. They will otherwise laugh at your attempts. (The Mediums’ Book, #252 and #279).
Some people may ask why the protector Spirits do not force the bad Spirits removal. There is no doubt that they can do so and sometimes they do. However, by allowing the struggle they also allow the merit of the victory. If they let people experience the merit after the struggle is to test their resolve and help them to acquire more strength in good. To them it is a kind of moral exercise.
Here is the answer we gave to Mr. P… colonel of the Austrian Army who consulted us about an illness that he attributed to the bad Spirits and apologizing for calling us friend since he only knew us by name:
“Spiritism is a fraternal link in its very fabric and you are correct by thinking that those who share such a belief and even without knowing one another must be treated as friends. I thank you for thinking highly of me and for giving me such a title. I am glad for having in you a sincere and devout follower of this reassuring doctrine. However, for the very reason that it is reassuring it must give moral strength and resignation to withstand the trials of life that, most of the time, are atonements. The Spiritist Review gives you a large number of examples. With respect to the illness that affects you I do not see evidence of the influence of bad Spirits who could obsess us. Let us hypothetically admit that for a moment. There would be only one moral power capable of opposing the other power and that can only come from you. Against a spirit it is necessary to fight spirit-to- spirit and the stronger shall win. In similar cases it is necessary to acquire the most possible summation of superiority by one’s willpower, energy and moral qualities to have granted the right of saying: Vade retro! Thus, if you are in that position it is not with the sword of the colonel that you are going to win but with the sword of the angel that is virtue and prayer. The kind of horror and anguish that you feel in those moments is a sign of weakness of which the spirit takes advantage. Control fear and with a strong willpower you shall win.
A.K.”
There is no doubt that certain persons would prefer an easier recipe to expel the Spirits: some words to say or signs to make for example and that would be easier that correcting one’s own failures. We are sorry but we do not know a more efficient way to win a fight against the enemy but to be stronger. When we are sick we must yield to the need of taking medication however bitter it may be. But after having the courage of telling them how good and strong we feel! We must persuade ourselves that there aren’t sacramental words to achieve the objective or formulas or talisman or any other signal. The bad Spirits laugh at this and sometimes even like to indicate some that are infallible according to them in order to gain the trust of those who are abused by them because these now confident in the rightfulness of the process give themselves without fear.
Before expecting to dominate the bad spirit, it is necessary to dominate oneself. From all means of acquiring the necessary strength to achieve it the most efficient is the willpower seconded by prayer, the prayer from the bottom of the heart – be it understood – and not that of words in which the mouth participates more than the mind. It is necessary to ask one’s guardian angel and the good Spirits who help us in the struggle. But is not enough to ask them to send the bad spirit away. It is necessary to remember the maxim: Help yourself and heavens will help you; ask them, above all, for the strength that we lack to win over our own bad inclination that for us are worse than the bad Spirits since those very inclinations are the ones that attract them like the rotten food attracts the vultures. Praying for the obsessing spirit is to pay evil with good and be better than the other and that is already a demonstration of superiority. With perseverance we end up in the majority of the cases by leading them to better feelings, transforming the obsessing spirit into a grateful spirit. To summarize sincere prayer and true efforts to improve oneself are the only means of keeping the bad Spirits away, Spirits that acknowledge those who practice good as their teachers whilst formulas make them laugh. Rage and impatience excite them. It is necessary to tire them by being more patient them they are.
Sometimes, however, the subjugation reaches the point of paralyzing the willpower of the obsessed hence there could be no expectation of a positive reaction. That is when the intervention of a third party becomes necessary be it through prayer or through magnetic action. But the power of such intervention also depends on the moral superiority that the intervener may have upon the Spirits otherwise the intervention will be useless.
In the case of intervention, the magnetic action penetrates the fluid of the obsessed with a better fluid therefore disconnecting the fluid of the obsessing spirit. When operating the magnetizer must have the double objective of opposing a moral strength against another and to produce on the patient a kind of chemical reaction – using a material comparison – then replacing one fluid by another. Thus this is not just a healthy separation but the strengthening of weakened organs by a long and sometimes vigorous domination.
As a matter of fact one must understand that the fluidic action is not only in proportion to the willpower but above all in the quality of the fluid and, as we said, such quality depends on the instruction and moral qualities of the magnetizer. It follows that a common magnetizer who would act mechanically in order to magnetize would produce little or no effect. It is extremely necessary to have a Spiritist magnetizer with knowledge about these causes, with the intention of producing the effects that we have just described instead of induce somnambulism or producing an organic cure.
Besides, it is evident that a magnetic action applied in such a way will also be useful in cases of ordinary obsession because if the magnetizer is then supported by the willpower of the obsessed the bad spirit will be fighting two adversaries instead of one.
It is still necessary to say that we often blame strange Spirits for wrong doings on which they have no responsibility. Certain morbid states and certain aberrations that are attributed to an occult cause are sometimes exclusively to the spirit of the individual. Interactions normally concentrated on oneself and particularly broken hearts have led to many eccentric attitudes that are wrongly attributed to obsession. Many times the person is his own obsessing spirit.
We must finally add that certain tenacious obsessions, particularly of worthy persons, are sometimes part of the tests to which they are submitted. “Sometimes it happens that the obsession, when simple, is a task imposed onto the obsessed that must work to improve the obsessing spirit like a father does to an addicted son.” We refer the reader to The Mediums’ Book for more details.
We must still talk about collective or epidemic obsession and, in particular, that of Morzine. This, however, requires considerations of a certain amplitude to demonstrate by facts its similarity with individual obsessions. The proof of that is in our own observations and in those described in medical reports. Besides we must examine the effect of the applied means and later the action of exorcism and the conditions in which it can be efficient or null. The extension of this second part forces us to transform it in the subject of a special article to be published in the next issue.
