ON OBSESSION.

Simple obsession.

— Fascination.

— Subjugation.

— Possession. — Causes of obsession.

— Means of combating it.

Among the pitfalls that the practice of Spiritism presents, obsession must be placed in the first rank, that is, the dominion that some Spirits manage to acquire over certain persons.

It is never practiced except by inferior Spirits, who seek to dominate.

Good Spirits inflict no constraint. They counsel, they combat the influence of the bad ones, and, if they are not heeded, they withdraw.

The bad ones, on the contrary, fasten themselves onto those of whom they can make their prey. If they succeed in dominating someone, they identify themselves with that person's Spirit and lead him about as though he were a veritable child.

Obsession presents diverse characters, which must be distinguished and which result from the degree of the constraint and from the nature of the effects it produces.

The word obsession is, in a certain way, a generic term by which this kind of phenomenon is designated, whose principal varieties are: simple obsession, fascination, and subjugation.

[Simple obsession.]

— Simple obsession occurs when a malevolent Spirit imposes itself upon a medium, intrudes, against the medium's will, into the communications he receives, prevents him from communicating with other Spirits, and presents itself in place of those who are evoked.

No one is obsessed by the mere fact of being deceived by a lying Spirit.

The best medium is exposed to this, above all at the beginning, when he still lacks the necessary experience, just as, among us men, the most honest may be deceived by knaves.

One can therefore be deceived without being obsessed.

Obsession consists in the tenacity of a Spirit from which the person upon whom it acts cannot manage to free himself.

In simple obsession, the medium knows very well that he is the prey of a lying Spirit, and the latter does not disguise itself; in no way does it dissimulate its bad intentions and its purpose of thwarting. The medium recognizes the felony without difficulty and, as he keeps himself on guard, he is rarely deceived.

This kind of obsession is, therefore, merely disagreeable and has no other inconvenience beyond that of opposing an obstacle to the communications that one would have wished to receive from serious Spirits, or from cherished ones.

The cases of physical obsession may be included in this category, that is, the obsession that consists in the noisy and obstinate manifestations of certain Spirits, who cause rappings or other noises to be heard spontaneously. As regards this phenomenon, consult the chapter on Spontaneous Physical Manifestations. (no. 82.)

[Fascination.]

— Fascination has much more serious consequences. It is an illusion produced by the direct action of the Spirit upon the thought of the medium and which, in a certain manner, paralyzes his reasoning with respect to the communications.

The fascinated medium does not believe that he is being deceived: the Spirit has the art of inspiring in him a blind confidence, which prevents him from seeing the deception and from understanding the absurdity of what he writes, even when that absurdity leaps to everyone's eyes.

The illusion can even go so far as to make him find the most ridiculous language sublime.

It would be an error to believe that only simple, ignorant, and senseless persons are subject to this kind of obsession. Neither are the men of greatest intellect, the most instructed, and the most intelligent in other respects exempt from it, which proves that such an aberration is the effect of an external cause, whose influence they undergo.

We have already said that the consequences of fascination are much more serious. Indeed, thanks to the illusion that results from it, the Spirit leads about the individual of whom it has managed to take possession, as it would do with a blind man, and can bring him to accept the strangest doctrines, the falsest theories, as if they were the sole expression of truth. Still more, it can lead him into ridiculous, compromising, and even dangerous situations.

One easily understands all the difference that exists between simple obsession and fascination; one understands also that the Spirits who produce these two effects must differ in character.

In the first, the Spirit that fastens itself onto the person is no more than an importunate one through its tenacity, and one whom that person grows impatient to be rid of.

In the second, the matter is very different. To attain such ends, it is necessary that the Spirit be adroit, cunning, and profoundly hypocritical, since it cannot bring about the change and make itself welcome except by means of the mask it assumes and a false appearance of virtue.

The grand terms — charity, humility, love of God — serve it as a kind of letter of credit; yet through all this it lets slip signs of inferiority, which only the fascinated one is incapable of perceiving.

For this very reason, what the fascinator most fears are persons who see clearly. Hence its tactic consists, almost always, in inspiring its interpreter to draw away from whoever might open his eyes. By this means, avoiding all contradiction, it is sure of always being right. [Subjugation.]

— Subjugation is a constriction that paralyzes the will of the one who suffers it and makes him act against his will. In a word: the patient remains under a veritable yoke.

Subjugation may be moral or bodily.

In the first case, the subjugated one is constrained to take resolutions, often absurd and compromising, which, by a kind of illusion, he judges sensible: it is like a fascination.

In the second case, the Spirit acts upon the material organs and provokes involuntary movements.

In the writing medium, it is translated into an incessant need to write, even at the least opportune moments. We have seen some who, for lack of pen or pencil, simulated writing with the finger, wherever they happened to be, even in the streets, on doors, on walls.

Bodily subjugation goes, at times, further; it can lead to the most ridiculous acts.

We knew a man, who was neither young nor handsome and who, under the dominion of an obsession of this nature, found himself constrained, by an irresistible force, to throw himself on his knees before a young woman regarding whom he nourished no pretension, and to ask her in marriage.

At other times, he felt in his back and in the hollows of his knees a vigorous pressure, which forced him, notwithstanding the resistance he opposed to it, to kneel down and kiss the ground in public places and in the presence of the crowd.

This man passed for a madman among his acquaintances; we are, however, convinced that he was not one at all, since he had full consciousness of the ridiculousness of what he did against his will, and suffered horribly because of it. [Possession.]

— Formerly the name of possession was given to the dominion exercised by bad Spirits, when their influence went so far as the aberration of the faculties of the victim.

Possession would be, for us, synonymous with subjugation. For two reasons we refrain from adopting that term: first, because it implies the belief in beings created for evil and perpetually devoted to evil, whereas there are only beings more or less imperfect, all of whom can improve themselves; second, because it equally implies the idea of the seizing of a body by a foreign Spirit, of a kind of cohabitation, whereas what there is, is merely constraint. The word subjugation expresses the idea perfectly.

Thus, for us, there are no possessed ones, in the vulgar sense of the term; there are only the obsessed, the subjugated, and the fascinated. n [Causes of obsession.]

Obsession, as we have said, is one of the greatest pitfalls of mediumship, and also one of the most frequent. For that very reason, no efforts employed to combat it will be too many, since, besides the personal inconveniences it brings about, it is an absolute obstacle to the goodness and the truthfulness of the communications.

Obsession, of whatever degree, being always the effect of a constraint, and this never being able to be exercised by a good Spirit, it follows that every communication given by an obsessed medium is of suspect origin and merits no confidence.

If anything good is found in them, let it be kept and let everything that is merely doubtful be rejected.

Obsession is recognized by the following characters:

1st Persistence of a Spirit in communicating, whether welcome or not, by writing, by hearing, by typtology, etc., opposing itself to other Spirits doing so;

2nd Illusion that, notwithstanding the intelligence of the medium, prevents him from recognizing the falsity and the ridiculousness of the communications he receives;

3rd Belief in the infallibility and in the absolute identity of the Spirits that communicate and that, under respectable and venerated names, say false or absurd things;

4th Confidence of the medium in the praises bestowed upon him by the Spirits that communicate through him;

5th Disposition to draw away from persons who might offer useful opinions;

6th Taking ill the criticism of the communications he receives;

7th Incessant and untimely need to write;

8th Any physical constraint whatsoever, dominating his will and forcing him to act or speak against his will;

9th Persistent noises and disorders around the medium, he being the cause, or the object, of all of it.

In view of the danger of obsession, one is led to ask whether it is not lamentable to be a medium. Is it not the mediumistic faculty that provokes it?

In a word, does this not constitute a proof of the inconvenience of spirit communications? The answer presents itself to us easily, and we ask that it be meditated upon carefully.

It was not the mediums, nor the Spiritists, who created the Spirits; on the contrary, it was the Spirits who brought it about that there should be Spiritists and mediums.

The Spirits being no more than the souls of men, it is clear that there have been Spirits ever since there have been men; consequently, in all times they have exercised a salutary or pernicious influence over Humanity.

The mediumistic faculty is for them no more than a means of manifesting themselves. In the absence of that faculty, they do it by a thousand other ways, more or less hidden.

It would, then, be an error to believe that it is only by means of written or verbal communications that the Spirits exercise their influence. This influence is of every instant, and even those who do not occupy themselves with the Spirits, or who do not even believe in them, are exposed to suffering it like the others, and even more than the others, because they have nothing with which to counterbalance it.

Mediumship is, for the Spirit, a means of making itself known. If it is bad, it always betrays itself, however hypocritical it may be. It may, then, be said that mediumship allows one to see the enemy face to face, if we may so express ourselves, and to combat it with its own weapons.

Without that faculty it acts in the shadows and, having invisibility in its favor, it can do, and really does, much harm.

To how many acts is man not impelled, to his own misfortune, which he would have avoided had he possessed a means of enlightening himself! The unbelievers do not imagine that they are enunciating a truth when they say of a man who goes obstinately astray: "It is his bad genius that drives him to his own ruin."

Thus, the knowledge of Spiritism, far from facilitating the predominance of bad Spirits, must have as its result, in a time more or less near, and when it has become propagated, the destruction of that predominance, giving to each one the means of putting himself on guard against their suggestions. He who then succumbs will have only himself to blame.

General rule: whoever receives bad spirit communications, written or verbal, is under a bad influence; that influence is exercised over him whether he writes or not, that is, whether or not he is a medium, whether or not he believes.

Writing furnishes a means of appraising the nature of the Spirits that act upon him and of combating them, if they are bad, which is achieved with more success when one comes to know the motives of the action they develop. If he is blind enough not to understand it, others may open his eyes.

In summary: the danger lies not in Spiritism, in itself, for this can, on the contrary, serve us as a governor and preserve us from the risk we incessantly run, unbeknownst to ourselves. The danger lies in the proud propensity of certain mediums to judge themselves, very thoughtlessly, the exclusive instruments of superior Spirits, and in that kind of fascination that does not permit them to understand the follies of which they are the interpreters.

Even those who are not mediums may let themselves be caught. Let us make a comparison. A man has a secret enemy, whom he does not know and who surreptitiously spreads against him calumny and everything that the blackest malice may invent. The unfortunate man sees his fortune lost, his friends drawing away, his intimate happiness disturbed. Being unable to discover the hand that strikes him, he finds himself unable to defend himself, and he succumbs. But, one fine day, that hidden enemy writes to him and betrays himself, notwithstanding all the wiles he employs. Behold, the persecutor of the poor man is discovered, and from then on he can confound him and rehabilitate himself. Such is the role of the bad Spirits, whom Spiritism affords us the possibility of knowing and unmasking.

The causes of obsession vary according to the character of the Spirit.

It is, at times, a vengeance that it takes upon an individual against whom it holds grievances from his present life or from the time of another existence.

Many times, too, there is no more than the desire to do harm: the Spirit, as it suffers, sees fit to make others suffer; it finds a kind of enjoyment in tormenting them, in vexing them, and the impatience that the victim shows on this account exacerbates it the more, because that is the aim it pursues, whereas patience leads it to grow weary.

In growing irritated and showing himself spiteful, the persecuted one does exactly what his persecutor wishes.

These Spirits act, not rarely, out of hatred and envy of the good; hence they cast their malevolent gaze upon the most honest persons.

One of them attached itself like "ringworm" to an honorable family of our acquaintance, which, moreover, it did not have the satisfaction of deceiving. Interrogated as to the reason why it had fastened onto distinguished persons, instead of doing so onto bad men like itself, it answered: These do not cause me envy.

Others are guided by a feeling of cowardice, which leads them to take advantage of the moral weakness of certain individuals whom they know to be incapable of resisting them. One of these latter, who subjugated a young man of very meager intelligence, interrogated as to the motives of that choice, answered: I have very great need to torment someone; a judicious person will repel me; I attach myself to an idiot, who opposes no force to me.

There are obsessing Spirits without malice, who even denote something good, but dominated by the pride of false knowledge.

They have their ideas, their systems concerning the sciences, social economy [society], morals, religion, philosophy, and they want to make their opinions prevail.

To that end, they seek mediums credulous enough to accept them with eyes closed, and whom they fascinate, in order to prevent them from discerning the true from the false.

They are the most dangerous, because sophisms cost them nothing and they can make the most ridiculous utopias believed.

As they know the prestige of great names, they have no scruple about adorning themselves with one of those before which all bow, and they do not even recoil before the sacrilege of saying that they are Jesus, the Virgin Mary, or a venerated saint.

They seek to dazzle by means of a pompous language, more pretentious than profound, bristling with technical terms and stuffed with the resounding words — charity and morals.

They will carefully avoid giving a bad piece of advice, because they well know that they would be repelled. Hence it comes that those who are deceived by them defend them, saying: You see clearly that they say nothing bad.

Morals, however, for these Spirits is a mere passport; it is what concerns them least. What they want, above all, is to impose their ideas, however senseless they may be.

The Spirits given to systems are generally scribblers, wherefore they seek out mediums who write with facility and of whom they set about making docile and, above all, enthusiastic instruments, by fascinating them.

They are almost always verbose, very prolix, seeking to compensate for quality by quantity.

They take pleasure in dictating to their interpreters voluminous, indigestible, and frequently scarcely intelligible writings, which, fortunately, have for their antidote the material impossibility of being read by the masses.

Truly superior Spirits are sparing of words; they say a great deal in a few sentences.

It follows that that prodigious fecundity must always be suspect.

No amount of circumspection will ever be too much when it is a question of publishing such writings.

The utopias and the eccentricities, which at times abound in them and shock good sense, produce a deplorable impression on persons still novices in the Doctrine, giving them a false idea of Spiritism, without even taking into account that they are weapons of which its enemies make use, in order to ridicule it.

Among such publications, there are some which, without being bad and without proceeding from an obsession, may be considered imprudent, untimely, or clumsy.

It very frequently happens that a medium can communicate with only a single Spirit, which attaches itself to him and answers for those who are called through his intermediation.

There is not always an obsession in this, since the fact may derive from the lack of suppleness of the medium, from a special affinity of his with such or such a Spirit.

There is obsession properly speaking only when the Spirit imposes itself and intentionally drives away the others, which is never the work of a good Spirit.

Generally, the Spirit that takes possession of the medium, with a view to dominating him, does not tolerate the critical examination of its communications; 5 when it sees that they are not accepted, that they are discussed, it does not withdraw, but inspires in the medium the thought of isolating himself, even going so far, not rarely, as to order him to do so.

Every medium who is hurt by the criticism of the communications he obtains makes himself the echo of the Spirit that dominates him, 7 a Spirit that cannot be good, since it inspires in him an illogical thought, such as that of refusing examination.

The isolation of the medium is always a deplorable thing for him, because he remains without a verification of the communications he receives.

Not only must he seek the opinion of third parties in order to enlighten himself, but it is also necessary for him to study all kinds of communications, in order to compare them.

In restricting himself to those that are transmitted to him, he exposes himself to deluding himself about the value of these, without considering that it is not given to him to know everything and that they almost always revolve within the same circle. (no. 192 — Exclusive mediums.)

[Means of combating it.]

The means of combating obsession vary according to the character it takes on.

There is really no danger for the medium who is well convinced that he is dealing with a lying Spirit, as happens in simple obsession; this is then, for him, no more than a disagreeable fact.

But, precisely because it is disagreeable to him, it constitutes one more reason for the Spirit to take vicious delight in vexing him.

Two essential things have to be done in that case: to prove to the Spirit that one is not deluded by it and that it is impossible for it to deceive; then, to wear out its patience, by showing oneself more patient than it.

From the moment it becomes convinced that it is wasting its time, it will withdraw, as do the importunate ones to whom no ear is given.

This, however, is not always enough and may take a long time, since there are tenacious Spirits for whom months and years are nothing. Besides this, therefore, the medium must direct a fervent appeal to his good angel, as well as to the good Spirits who are sympathetic to him, asking them to assist him.

As for the obsessing Spirit, however bad it may be, he must treat it with severity, but with benevolence, and overcome it by good methods, praying for it.

If it is really perverse, at first it will mock these means; but, moralized with perseverance, it will end by mending itself.

It is a conversion to be undertaken, a task often painful, thankless, even disagreeable, but whose merit lies in the difficulty it offers and which, if well carried out, always gives the satisfaction of having fulfilled a duty of charity and, almost always, that of having led back to the good path a lost soul.

It is equally fitting that all written communication be interrupted, from the moment it is recognized that it proceeds from a bad Spirit that will heed no reason, in order not to give it the pleasure of being heard.

In certain cases, it may even be fitting that the medium cease to write for some time, regulating himself then by the circumstances.

However, if the writing medium can avoid these conferences, the same is not the case with the hearing medium, whom the obsessing Spirit pursues at times at every instant with its coarse and obscene propositions, and who does not even have the recourse of stopping his ears.

Moreover, it must be recognized that some persons amuse themselves with the trivial language of this kind of Spirit, encouraging and provoking them by laughing at their follies, instead of imposing silence on them and moralizing them.

Our counsels cannot serve those who wish to drown themselves.

There is, then, only annoyance, and not danger, for every medium who does not let himself be hoodwinked, because he cannot be deceived.

Very different is what happens with fascination, because then the dominion that the Spirit assumes over the incarnate one of whom it has taken possession has no limits.

The only thing to be done with the victim is to convince him that he is being hoodwinked and to reduce his obsession to the case of simple obsession.

This, however, is not always easy, granted that at times it is even impossible.

The ascendancy of the Spirit may be such that it renders the fascinated one deaf to every sort of reasoning, even being able to go so far, when the Spirit commits some gross scientific heresy, as to place him in doubt as to whether it is not science that is in error.

As we have already said, the fascinated one generally receives counsels ill; criticism annoys him, irritates him, and makes him take a grudge against those who do not share his admiration.

To suspect the Spirit that accompanies him is almost, in his eyes, a profanation, and the said Spirit wants nothing else, for all it aspires to is that everyone should bow before its word.

One of them exercised, over a person of our acquaintance, an extraordinary fascination. We evoked it and, after a certain amount of bluster, seeing that it could not manage to mystify us as to its identity, it ended by confessing that it was not who it claimed to be.

Being asked why it hoodwinked that person in such a manner, it answered with these words, which clearly depict the character of this kind of Spirit: I was seeking a man whom it might be possible for me to manage; I found him, I do not let him go. — 10 But if you show him things as they are, he will fling this at you: — We shall see about that! As there is no blind man worse than the one who will not see, the uselessness of every attempt to open the eyes of the fascinated one being recognized, the best thing to be done is to leave him to his illusions.

No one can cure a sick man who obstinately persists in keeping his malady and takes pleasure in it.

Bodily subjugation often takes away from the obsessed one the energy necessary to dominate the bad Spirit. Hence the intervention of a third party becomes necessary, one who acts either by magnetism, or by the dominion of his will.

In the absence of the cooperation of the obsessed one, this third person must take ascendancy over the Spirit; but, as this ascendancy can only be moral, it is given only to a being morally superior to the Spirit to assume it, and his power will be the greater the greater his moral superiority is, because then he imposes himself upon that Spirit, which finds itself forced to bow before him.

That is why Jesus had such great power to expel what in that epoch was called demon, that is, the bad obsessing Spirits.

Here, we can offer no more than general counsels, since no material procedure exists, as, above all, no formula, no sacramental word, with the power to expel obsessing Spirits.

At times, what is lacking in the obsessed one is sufficient fluidic force; in that case, the magnetic action of a good magnetizer can be of great benefit to him.

Nevertheless, it is always advisable to seek, through a trustworthy medium, the counsels of a superior Spirit, or of the guardian angel.

The moral imperfections of the obsessed one frequently constitute an obstacle to his deliverance.

Here is a remarkable example, which may serve for the instruction of all.

There were some sisters who had been, for some years, victims of very disagreeable depredations. Their clothes were incessantly scattered into every corner of the house and even onto the rooftops, cut, torn, and riddled with holes, however much care they took to keep them under lock and key.

These ladies, living in a small locality in the provinces, had never heard Spiritism spoken of. The first idea that came to them was, naturally, that they were dealing with pranksters in bad taste. But the persistence and the precautions they took removed that idea from them.

Only much later, by some indications, did they find that they ought to seek us out, in order to learn the cause of such depredations and to remedy them, if it were possible.

About the cause there was no doubt; the remedy was more difficult. The Spirit that manifested itself by such acts was evidently malevolent. Evoked, it showed itself of great perversity and inaccessible to any good sentiment. Prayer, nevertheless, seemed to exercise a salutary influence over it.

But, after some time of interruption, the depredations began again. Here is the counsel that, in this regard, a superior Spirit gave us:

"The best thing these ladies have to do is to beg the Spirits their protectors not to abandon them.

No better counsel can I give them than to tell them to descend to the bottom of their consciences, to confess to themselves and to verify whether they have always practiced love of neighbor and charity.

I do not speak of the charity that consists in giving and distributing, but of the charity of the tongue; for, unfortunately, they do not know how to restrain theirs and do not demonstrate, by acts of piety, the desire they have to free themselves of the one who torments them.

They are very fond of speaking ill of their neighbor, and the Spirit that obsesses them takes its revenge, since, in life, it was for them a beast of burden. Let them search their memory and they will soon discover who it is.

"However, if they manage to improve themselves, their guardian angels will draw near, and the mere presence of these will suffice to drive away the bad Spirit, which fastened itself onto one of them in particular only because her guardian angel had to draw away, by reason of reprehensible acts, or bad thoughts.

What they need is to make fervent prayers for those who suffer and, principally, to practice the virtues imposed by God upon each one, according to his condition."

As we observed that these words seemed somewhat severe and that perhaps it would be advisable to soften them, in order to be transmitted, the Spirit added:

"I must say what I say and as I say it, because the persons in question have the bad habit of supposing that they do no harm with the tongue, when they do a very great deal. Therefore, it is necessary to wound their Spirit, in such a way that it may serve them as a serious warning."

There stands out from what has been said a teaching of great reach: that moral imperfections give occasion to the action of obsessing Spirits, and that the surest means for a person to free himself of them is to attract the good ones by the practice of good.

Without doubt, the good Spirits have more power than the bad ones, and their will suffices to drive away the latter; they, however, only assist those who second them by the efforts they make to improve themselves, without which they draw away and leave the field free to the bad ones, which thus become, in certain cases, instruments of punishment, seeing that the good ones permit them to act to that end.

It is fitting, nevertheless, that not all the contrarieties one may experience be attributed to the direct action of the Spirits, which contrarieties, not rarely, arise from negligence, or from improvidence.

A farmer wrote to us one day that, for twelve years, all manner of misfortunes had been happening to him with respect to his livestock; now it was the cows that died, or ceased to give milk, now it was the horses, the sheep, or the pigs that perished. He made many novenas, which in no way remedied the evil, just as he obtained nothing with the masses he had celebrated, nor with the exorcisms he had performed. He persuaded himself, then, in accordance with the prejudice of the countryside, that his animals had been bewitched.

Supposing us, no doubt, endowed with a greater exorcising power than that of the priest of his village, he asked our opinion. The following was the answer that we obtained:

"The mortality or the maladies of that man's livestock proceed from the fact that his stalls are infected and he does not repair them, because it costs money."

We shall end this chapter by inserting the answers that the Spirits gave to some questions and that come in support of what we have said.

1st Why can certain mediums not free themselves of bad Spirits that attach themselves to them, and how is it that the good Spirits they call do not show themselves powerful enough to drive away the others and to communicate directly?

"It is not that the good Spirit lacks power; it is, most of the time, that the medium is not strong enough to second it; 2 it is that his nature lends itself better to other relations; 3 it is that his fluid identifies itself more with that of one Spirit than with that of another.

That is what gives such great dominion to those that know how to hoodwink them."

2nd It seems to us, nevertheless, that there are persons of much merit, of irreproachable morality, who, in spite of everything, find themselves prevented from communicating with the good Spirits.

"It is a trial.

And who tells you, moreover, that they do not bear their heart stained with a little evil? that pride does not somewhat dominate the appearance of goodness?

These trials, in showing the obsessed one his weakness, must make him incline toward humility.

"Is there on Earth anyone who can say himself perfect? Now, one who has all the appearances of virtue may yet have many hidden defects, an old leaven of imperfection.

Thus, for example, you say of the one who practices no evil, who is loyal in his social relations: he is a brave and worthy man. But do you know, perchance, whether his good qualities are not tarnished by pride; whether there is not in him a basis of egoism; whether he is not miserly, jealous, rancorous, slanderous, and a thousand other things that you do not perceive, because your relations with him have given you no occasion to discover them?

The most powerful means of combating the influence of the bad Spirits is to approach as closely as possible the nature of the good ones." 3rd Is obsession, which prevents a medium from receiving the communications he desires, always a sign of unworthiness on his part?

"I did not say that it is a sign of unworthiness, but that an obstacle may oppose itself to certain communications; 2 to removing the obstacle that is within him, that is what he must apply himself to; without this, his prayers, his supplications will do nothing.

It is not enough for a sick man to say to his physician: give me health, I want to be well. The physician can do nothing if the sick man does not do what is necessary." 4th Thus, the impossibility of communicating with the good Spirits would be a kind of punishment?

"In certain cases, it may be a true punishment, just as the possibility of communicating with them is a recompense that you must strive to merit."

(See Loss and suspension of mediumship, no. 220.)

5th Can one not also combat the influence of the bad Spirits by moralizing them?

"Yes, but it is what is not done and what one must not neglect to do, since, many times, this constitutes a task that is given to you and that you must carry out charitably and religiously. By means of wise counsels, it is possible to induce them to repentance and to hasten their progress."

a — How can a man have, in this regard, more influence than the Spirits themselves have?

"The perverse Spirits draw nearer to the men they seek to torment than to the Spirits, from whom they draw away as much as possible.

In that approach to humans, when they encounter someone who moralizes them, at first they do not listen to him and even laugh at him; then, if that one knows how to hold them, they end by letting themselves be touched. The elevated Spirits can speak to them only in the name of God, and this terrifies them.

Man, undoubtedly, does not dispose of more power than the superior Spirits, but his language identifies itself better with the nature of those others, and, in seeing the ascendancy that man can exercise over the inferior Spirits, they better understand the solidarity that exists between Heaven and Earth.

"Moreover, the ascendancy that man can exercise over the Spirits is in proportion to his moral superiority.

He does not dominate the superior Spirits, nor even those that, without being superior, are good and benevolent, but he can dominate those that are inferior to him in morality." (See no. 279.)

6th Could bodily subjugation, carried to a certain degree, have madness as a consequence?

"It could, a kind of madness whose cause the world does not know, but which has no relation at all with ordinary madness.

Among those who are taken for mad, there are many who are merely subjugated; they would need a moral treatment, whereas with bodily treatments we make them true madmen.

When physicians know Spiritism well, they will know how to make that distinction and will cure more sick people than with the douches."

7th What should one think of those who, seeing some danger in Spiritism, judge that the means of preventing it would be to prohibit spirit communications?

"If they can prohibit certain persons from communicating with the Spirits, they cannot prevent spontaneous manifestations from being made to those same persons, since they cannot suppress the Spirits, nor prevent them from exercising their hidden influence.

Such persons resemble children who cover their eyes and remain believing that no one sees them.

It would be madness to want to suppress a thing that offers great advantages, only because the imprudent may abuse it. The means of preventing its inconveniences consists, on the contrary, in making it known thoroughly." [1] [Are there or are there not possessed ones? — On January 15, 1861, the first edition of "The Mediums' Book" came to light; in March 1861, in the article "The little man still lives" in the Spiritist Review, Kardec already spoke of the need for a new edition for the recently launched MEDIUMS' BOOK; in November 1861, in the same review, he announced the launch of the second edition, the definitive one, with profound alterations as set forth in his introduction in indicator 16; two years later, in December 1863, the Codifier published an article in the Spiritist Review entitled A Case of Possession, from which we highlight the following sentence that heads the said article: "We have said that there were no possessed ones, in the vulgar sense of the word, but subjugated ones. We return to this absolute assertion, because now it is demonstrated to us that there can be a true possession, that is, a substitution, albeit partial, of a wandering Spirit for an incarnate one." Furthermore, the concept of possession presented in The Spirits' Book was the object of new clarifications by the Codifier in Genesis, chapter XIV in item 47, a book whose very title indicates to us what it is about; therefore, had it not been for the urgency of presenting in a fundamental work those clarifications, Kardec, the Incarnate Good Sense, would not have placed it there. — K. J.]