Studies on the possessed of Morzine.

Items 1-15. (Part 1.) December 1862. — 16-24a.

(Part 2.) January

— 24b-29. (Part 3.) February 1863. — 30-38a. (Part 4.) April 1863. — 38b-45. (Part 5.) May 1963. — 46-48. (New details on the possessed of Morzine.) August 1864.

(Summary)

Preliminary explanations. [Beginning of a series of five articles published in the Spiritist Review of December 1862, January, February, March and May 1863, which are gathered here together]

Nature of the Spirits, from the moral point of view. Interaction between the visible world and the invisible one.

Moral atmosphere of the Earth.

Exodus of the imperfect Spirits.

Mode of reciprocal action of the incarnate and the disincarnate. The perispirit and its radiations.

Does Spiritism materialize the soul? Soul and perispirit.

Envelopes of the soul, according to Spiritism.

The perispirit and its fluidic action. Fluidic interactions of sympathetic and antipathetic persons.

Perispiritic fluid giving qualities to magnetic action. Magnetization by the incarnate and the disincarnate.

Good or bad impressions of environments.

Good or bad action of wandering spirits upon the incarnate.

The case that occurred in the evocation of Mr. Beck of Bordeaux. Obsessional madness, or apparent madness.

Usefulness of the knowledge of Spiritism in combating obsession: It was through mediumship that these hidden enemies betrayed their presence; it did for it what the microscope did for the infinitely small: it revealed a whole world.

Cases of simple obsession in mediums: when the medium cannot rid himself of an evil Spirit, who communicates through him obstinately, by writing or by hearing; or that one, no less frequent, in which, by means of a good communication, a Spirit comes to interfere in order to say evil things.

Allan Kardec's reply to colonel P…, regarding an affliction attributed to evil Spirits. A recipe for expelling evil Spirits.

The will, seconded by prayer in the combat against obsession.

What to do when the subjugation reaches the point of paralyzing the will of the obsessed person. Power of fluidic action in combating grave obsessions.

There exist morbid states, aberrations, eccentric acts due exclusively to the spirit of the individual and not to obsession. Self-obsession.

Obsession as a trial. — (End of the 1st article)

Other important approaches concerning the perispirit. (Beginning of the 2nd) Fluidic influences to which man is subjected.

Who the mediums are.

The phenomena of Morzine analogous to other cases of obsessive epidemic.

Nuances of varied intensity and duration of the action of evil Spirits. The case, narrated by Mr. Indermuhle, of the material action of a Spirit who wanted to draw attention in order to ask for prayers.

The state of the young obsessed person, from the article The rapping Spirit of Aube, five years later.

The case of the young woman who became deranged for having married a man whom she did not love. Treatment of an obsession by fixed idea.

A daily gathering of five or six sincere Spiritists, devoted to prayer, with the aim of curing the patient in question.

Mental magnetization at a distance.

Salutary effects of treatment by prayer.

Magnetism and prayer.

Can the exercise of mediumship provoke disturbances of health and of the mental faculties?

Can the exercise of mediumship provoke in an individual the invasion of evil Spirits and their consequences? The presumption of believing oneself invulnerable to evil Spirits.

Pride being an easy access for evil Spirits, what are the safeguards against their assault.

24a-b. Epidemic obsession. (End of the 2nd article and beginning of the 3rd)

Example of the inconvenience of giving ourselves over to evocations without knowledge of cause and without a serious aim: the case of the family that performed evocations and was dominated by an evil Spirit of a relative, who manifested under a pseudonym.

The case of the gentleman, attacked by a kind of delirium and held to be mad, subjected to a mistaken treatment of his obsession. One day obsession will be placed among the pathological causes, as the action of microscopic animals is today.

The case of the wife of a sailor for fifteen years under the dominion of a sad subjugation, with several frustrated attempts at suicide, and whom the neighborhood says to be the victim of a malefice or a sorcery.

Those whom you call demons we call evil Spirits, and we grant you all the perversity that you might wish to attribute to them. To what category of Spirits could beings such as Tiberius, Nero, Claudius, Messalina, Caligula, Heliogabalus belong after death? What kind of obsession could they have provoked?

Incubi and succubi.

Would obsession have any role in hysterical phenomena?

The commune of Morzine. Dr. Constant and his diagnosis of the causes of the hysteria which, according to him, attacks the inhabitants of Morzine.

Allan Kardec gives a description of his observations on Morzine and its inhabitants. (End of the 3rd article)

The preconceived in the diagnoses on Morzine of Dr. Constant and of Mr. de Mirville. (Beginning of the 4th article)

Brief report of other observers of the phenomena of Morzine. Evaluating the references made by Dr. Constant and those of other observers, including Kardec himself.

Why is the effect in Morzine epidemic and not endemic?

Picture that Mr. Constant draws of the character of the people of Morzine.

Kardecian point of view concerning the cause of the ills in Morzine.

Opinions of Dr. Constant on Spiritism. Number of adherents of Spiritism in France and in the rest of the world already in 1863.

Progression of the epidemic of Morzine.

Continuation of the report begun in item 31. How the young obsessed women of Morzine behave and the satanic character of the crises, which demonstrate that they possess clairvoyance and polyglossia.

The distinction of various entities observed in the answers given by the obsessed women and the absence of memories after the crisis.

Mr. Constant describes the crises of the patients, according to his observations. The inefficacy of exorcisms.

A magnetic treatment performed by one of the obsessed women with Mr. Lafontaine.

Protecting Spirits watching over discreetly.

The diagnosis of Mr. Constant.

38a-b. Kardec analyzes the method by which Mr. Constant diagnoses the ills that struck Morzine and suggests another more logical one. (End of the 4th and beginning of the 5th article)

How the cause and effect of a phenomenon are ascertained: Example of the turning tables and of Newton's apple.

Continuation of the analysis made by Allan Kardec of the causes diagnosed by Mr. Constant for the obsessive phenomena observed in Morzine.

Dr. Chiara's references to the possessed of Morzine and his definition of the ill. Kardec analyzes the diagnosis given by Dr. Chiara.

Inferences of Allan Kardec concerning the phenomena observed in Morzine. The transfer of the patients to hospitals in Thonon, Chambéry, Lyon, Mâcon.

Mr. Constant's opinion on the treatment of the sick women.

Kardec contests Mr. Constant's opinion and gives his judgment on the curative means to be employed.

Upon Morzine there descended, for a moment, a cloud of malevolent Spirits.

Obsessional subjugation and not possession.

Whence comes the uselessness of exorcisms.

Collective exorcisms in Morzine. Phenomena narrated by Mr. A…. of Moscow, occurring in a village, very similar to those of Morzine, and their eradication by magnetism and by prayer.

The obsessive outbreak of Morzine had a providential end in the dissemination of Spiritism. Advice of Allan Kardec to the inhabitants of Morzine: Do not believe in the virtue of any talisman, of any amulet, of any sign, of any word to drive away evil Spirits. Purity of heart and of intention, love of God and of neighbor, behold the best talisman, because it takes from them all dominion over our souls.

Why are not all those who do evil stricken by possession?

Communication of Saint Louis concerning the possessed of Morzine, confirming its providential purpose for Spiritism. (End of the 5th article of the series)

NEW DETAILS ON THE POSSESSED OF MORZINE. (Appendix — Review of August 1864.) Report on Morzine made by Mr. Lafontaine, director of the Magnétiseur, a journal of animal magnetism published in Geneva.

Results of the visit of Monsignor Maguin, bishop of Annecy, to Morzine.

Account that the Courrier des Alpes gave of the visit of bishop Maguin to Morzine.

Comments of Allan Kardec on the latest events related to Morzine: The impotence of science to heal the problems of the inhabitants of the town.

The impotence of the Church to expel the demons of the locality.

The explanation, and the solution that Spiritism gives, concerning the true cause of the possessed of Morzine.

Why are the spiritual means employed by the Church in Morzine ineffective?

The triple action to be taken into account in the treatment of obsessions: the fluidic action, which frees the perispirit of the sick person from the oppression of the perispirit of the malevolent Spirit, the ascendancy exercised over the latter by the authority that moral superiority gives over him, and the moralizing influence of the advice that is given to him.

Perhaps they will ask why the Spiritists — since they are convinced of the cause of the ill and of the means to combat it — did not go to Morzine to work their miracles there?

— The observations we have made on the epidemic that has descended upon and still assails the commune of Morzine, in Haute-Savoie, leave us no doubt as to its cause. But, in order to support our opinion, we must enter into some preliminary explanations, which will better bring out the analogy of this ill with similar cases, whose origin could not give rise to doubt for anyone familiar with the spiritist phenomena and who recognizes the action of the invisible world upon Humanity. To this end it becomes necessary to go back to the very source of the phenomenon and to follow its gradation, from the simplest cases, explaining, at the same time, the manner in which it takes place. From this we shall much better deduce the means of combating the ill. Although we have already treated the subject in The Mediums' Book, in the chapter on obsession, and in various articles of this Review, we shall add some new considerations, which will make the thing easier to understand.

— The first point of which it matters that we be thoroughly persuaded is the nature of the Spirits, from the moral point of view. The Spirits being nothing other than the souls of men, and not all men being good, it is not rational to admit that the spirit of a perverse man is suddenly transformed; otherwise there would be no need for punishment in the future life. Experience comes to confirm the theory or, rather, this theory is the fruit of experience. Indeed, the relations with the invisible world show us, alongside Spirits sublime in wisdom and knowledge, others that are ignoble, still with all the vices and passions of Humanity. After death, the soul of a man of goodness will be a good Spirit. In the same way, when incarnating, a good Spirit will be a man of goodness. For the same reason, at death, a perverse man will give a perverse Spirit to the invisible world; and an evil Spirit, when incarnating, cannot be transformed into a virtuous man, at least, as long as the Spirit has not purified itself or experienced the desire to improve itself. For, once it has entered the path of progress, little by little it strips itself of its evil instincts; it rises gradually in the hierarchy of the Spirits, until reaching perfection, accessible to all, since God could not have created beings eternally doomed to evil and to unhappiness. Thus, the visible and invisible worlds interpenetrate and alternate ceaselessly, if we may so express ourselves, and feed one another mutually; or, rather, in reality these two worlds constitute but a single one, in two different states. This consideration is very important for better understanding the solidarity that exists between them. The Earth being an inferior world, that is to say, little advanced, it results that the majority of the Spirits who people it, whether in the wandering state, or as incarnate, must be composed of imperfect Spirits, who do more evil than good. Hence the predominance of evil on the Earth. Now, the Earth being, at the same time, a world of expiation, it is the contact with evil that renders men unhappy, for if all men were good, all would be happy. It is a state which our globe has not yet attained, and it is to such a state that God wishes to lead it. All the tribulations that men of goodness experience here, both on the part of men and on the part of the Spirits, are consequences of this state of inferiority. One could say that the Earth is the Botany Bay of the worlds: there are found primitive savagery and civilization, criminality and expiation. It is necessary, then, to present the invisible world as forming an innumerable population, compact, so to speak, which envelops the Earth and stirs in space. It is a kind of moral atmosphere, of which the incarnate Spirits occupy the lower part, where they stir as in a vessel. Now, just as the air of the low parts is heavy and unhealthy, this moral air is also harmful, because corrupted by the miasmas of the impure Spirits. To resist this, moral temperaments endowed with great vigor are necessary.

Let us say, in parenthesis, that such a state of things is inherent to the inferior worlds. But these follow the law of progress and, when they reach the required age, God purifies them, expelling from them the imperfect Spirits, who no longer reincarnate there and are replaced by others more advanced, who will cause happiness, justice and peace to reign. At present a revolution of this kind is being prepared.

— Let us now examine the reciprocal mode of action of the incarnate and disincarnate Spirits.

We know that the Spirits are clothed in a vaporous envelope, forming for them a veritable fluidic body, to which we give the name of perispirit, and whose elements are gathered from the universal or cosmic fluid, the principle of all things. When the Spirit unites with a body, it lives there with its perispirit, which serves as a link between the Spirit properly speaking and the corporeal matter; it is the intermediary of the sensations perceived by the Spirit. But the perispirit is not confined within the body, as in a box; by its fluidic nature, it radiates outward and forms around the body a kind of atmosphere, like the vapor that detaches itself from it. But the vapor released from a sickly body is likewise unhealthy, acrid and nauseating, which infects the air of the places where many sick persons gather. Just as this vapor is impregnated with the qualities of the body, the perispirit is impregnated with qualities, that is to say, with the thought of the Spirit, and radiates such qualities around the body.

— Here another parenthesis to reply immediately to an objection set forth by some against the theory given by Spiritism of the state of the soul. They accuse it of materializing the soul, whereas, according to religion, the soul is purely immaterial. Like most of the others, this objection proceeds from an incomplete and superficial study. Spiritism has never defined the nature of the soul, which escapes our investigations; it does not say that the perispirit constitutes the soul: the word perispirit positively says the contrary, for it specifies an envelope around the Spirit. What does The Spirits' Book say in this regard? “There are three things in man: the soul, or Spirit, the intelligent principle; the body, the material envelope; the perispirit, the semi-material fluidic envelope, serving as a bond between the Spirit and the body.” n From the fact that the soul preserves, with the death of the body, its fluidic envelope, it does not mean that such an envelope and the soul are one and the same thing, just as the body is not to be confused with the clothing nor the soul with the body. The Spiritist Doctrine takes nothing away from the immateriality of the soul, it merely gives it two wrappings, instead of one, in corporeal life, and only one after the death of the body, which is, not a hypothesis, but the result of observation; it is with the aid of this envelope that its individuality is better understood and its action upon matter is better explained.

— Let us return to our subject.

By its fluidic nature, essentially mobile and elastic, if we may so express ourselves, as the direct agent of the Spirit, the perispirit is set into action and projects rays by the will of the Spirit. By these rays it serves the transmission of thought, because, in a certain way, it is animated by the thought of the Spirit. The perispirit being the bond that unites the Spirit to the body, it is by its intermediary that the Spirit transmits to the organs, not the vegetative life, but the movements that express its will; it is, also, by its intermediary that the sensations of the body are transmitted to the Spirit. The solid body being destroyed by death, the Spirit no longer acts and no longer perceives except through its fluidic body, or perispirit, which is why it acts more easily and perceives better, since the body is an impediment. All this is again the result of observation. Let us now suppose two persons near each other, each enveloped — let us be permitted the neologism — by his perispiritual atmosphere. These two fluids come into contact and interpenetrate; if they are of an antipathetic nature, they repel each other and the two individuals will feel a kind of malaise on approaching one another, without being aware of it; if, on the contrary, they are moved by sentiments of benevolence, they will have a benevolent thought, which attracts. Such is the cause by which two persons understand and divine one another without speaking to one another. A certain je ne sais quoi at times tells us that the person whom we are facing must be animated by such or such a sentiment. Now, this je ne sais quoi is the expansion of the perispiritual fluid of the person in contact with ours, a kind of electric wire conducting thought. From then on it is understood that the Spirits, whose fluidic envelope is much freer than in the state of incarnation, no longer need articulate sounds to understand one another.

— The perispiritual fluid of the incarnate is, then, set into action by the Spirit. If, by its will, the Spirit, so to speak, darts rays upon another individual, the rays penetrate him. Hence the magnetic action more or less powerful, according to the will; more or less beneficent, according to whether the rays are of a better or worse nature, more or less vivifying. For they can, by their action, penetrate the organs and, in certain cases, restore the normal state. The importance of the moral qualities of the magnetizer is known.

That which the incarnate Spirit can do, darting its own fluid upon a person, a disincarnate Spirit can also do, since it has the same fluid, that is to say, it can magnetize. According to whether the fluid is good or bad, its action will be beneficial or harmful.

— Thus, we easily account for the nature of the impressions that we receive, according to the milieu in which we find ourselves. If an assembly is composed of persons animated by evil sentiments, the surrounding air will be saturated with the fluid impregnated with their sentiments. Hence, for good souls, a moral malaise analogous to the physical malaise caused by mephitic emanations: the soul is asphyxiated. If, on the contrary, the persons have pure intentions, we find ourselves in their atmosphere as if we were in a vivifying and salubrious air. Naturally the effect will be the same in an environment filled with Spirits, according to whether they are good or bad.

— This well understood, we arrive without difficulty at the material action of wandering spirits upon the incarnate and, from there, at the explanation of mediumship.

When a Spirit wants to act upon a person, it approaches him and envelops him, so to speak, with its perispirit, as in a mantle; the fluids interpenetrate, the two thoughts and the two wills merge and, then, the Spirit can make use of that body as if it were its own, make it act according to its will, speak, write, draw, etc. Such are the mediums. If the Spirit is good, its action will be gentle, beneficial, and it will do only good things; if it is evil, it will do wicked things; if it is perverse and evil, it constrains him as if it immobilized him in a straitjacket, to the point of paralyzing the will and reason itself, which it smothers with its fluids, as a fire is extinguished beneath a sheet of water. It causes him to think, speak and act for it, inducing him against his will to perform extravagant or ridiculous acts; in a word, it magnetizes him and makes him enter into a kind of moral catalepsy, so that the individual becomes a blind instrument of its will. Such is the cause of obsession, of fascination and of subjugation, which present themselves in diverse degrees of intensity. The paroxysm of subjugation is vulgarly called possession. It is to be noted that, in this state, the individual often has consciousness of the ridiculousness of that which he does, but is constrained to do it, as if a man more vigorous than he made him move, against his will, his arms, his legs, his tongue. Here is a curious example.

— In a small gathering in Bordeaux, in the midst of an evocation, the medium, a young man of gentle character and of perfect urbanity, suddenly begins to strike the table, rises with a threatening look, showing his fists to those present, uttering the coarsest insults and wanting to throw an inkwell at them. The scene, all the more shocking as it was unexpected, lasted about ten minutes, after which the young man recovered his habitual calm, apologized for what had happened, saying that he knew perfectly well that he had done and said improper things, but that he had not been able to prevent it. Upon taking knowledge of the fact, we asked for an explanation in a session of the Society of Paris, and we were answered that the Spirit who had provoked it was more frivolous than evil and that it had simply wanted to amuse itself with the dread of those present. The fact did not repeat itself again and the medium continued to receive excellent communications, which comes to prove the truthfulness of the explanation. It is well to say what had probably excited the verve of that prankster Spirit. A former conductor of the theater of Bordeaux, Mr. Beck, had experienced, for several years before dying, a singular phenomenon. Every night, on leaving the theater, it seemed to him that a man jumped onto his back, straddled his shoulders and remained clinging there until he reached the door of his house. There the supposed individual got down and Mr. Beck found himself free. At that gathering they wanted to evoke Mr. Beck and ask him for an explanation. It was then that the trickster Spirit deemed it good to substitute for him, making the medium enact a diabolical scene, certainly because it had found in him the necessary fluidic dispositions to second it. That which was merely accidental in that circumstance at times takes on a permanent character, when the Spirit is evil, because for it the individual becomes a veritable victim, to whom it can give the appearance of true madness. We say appearance, for madness properly speaking always results from an alteration of the cerebral organs, whereas, in this case, the organs are as intact as those of the young man of whom we have just spoken. There is, then, no real madness, but apparent madness, against which the resources of therapeutics are impotent, as experience proves. Even more: they can produce what does not exist. The houses for the insane count many sick persons of this kind, for whom contact with other insane persons can only be very harmful, because this state always denotes a certain moral weakness. Alongside all the varieties of pathological madness, it is fitting, then, to add obsessive madness, which requires special means. But how could a materialist physician establish this difference, or even admit it?

— Bravo! — our adversaries will exclaim. One cannot better demonstrate the dangers of Spiritism and we have very good reason to prohibit it.

One moment! That which we have said proves precisely its usefulness.

Do you believe that the evil Spirits, who swarm in the midst of Humanity, waited to be summoned in order to exercise their pernicious influence? Since Spirits have existed in all times, in all times they have played the same role, because this role is in Nature; and the proof of this is in the great number of persons obsessed, or possessed, if you will, before anyone thought of the Spirits or, at present, without ever having heard tell of Spiritism and of mediums. The action of the Spirits, good or evil, is, then, spontaneous; that of the evil ones produces a number of disturbances in the moral and even physical economy [organization] which, through ignorance of the true cause, are attributed to wrong causes. The evil Spirits are invisible enemies all the more dangerous as their action was not suspected. By bringing them to light, Spiritism comes to reveal a new cause of certain ills of Humanity. The cause being known, one will no longer seek to combat the ill by means that, henceforth, we know to be useless; one will seek others more efficacious. Now, what led to the discovery of this cause? Mediumship. It was through mediumship that these hidden enemies betrayed their presence; it did for it what the microscope did for the infinitely small: it revealed a whole world. Spiritism did not attract the evil Spirits; it revealed them and furnished the means to paralyze their action and, consequently, to drive them away. It did not, then, bring the ill, for this has always existed; on the contrary, it brought the remedy to the ill, by showing its causes. Once the action of the invisible world is recognized, one will have the key to a multitude of incomprehensible phenomena and Science, enriched with this new law, will see new horizons unfold before it. When will it reach there? When it no longer professes materialism, for materialism halts its advance and opposes to it an insurmountable barrier.

— Before speaking of the remedy, let us explain a fact that confounds many Spiritists, above all in the cases of simple obsession, that is to say, in those very frequent ones, in which the medium cannot rid himself of an evil Spirit, who communicates through him obstinately, by writing or by hearing; that one, no less frequent, in which, by means of a good communication, a Spirit comes to interfere in order to say evil things. One asks, then, whether the evil Spirits are more powerful than the good ones.

Let us refer to what we said initially, as to the manner in which the Spirit acts, and let us imagine a medium enveloped and penetrated by the perispiritual fluid of an evil Spirit. For that of the good one to be able to act upon the medium, it is necessary that it penetrate this envelope, and it is already known that light hardly penetrates a thick fog. According to the degree of obsession, the fog will be permanent, tenacious or intermittent and, consequently, more or less easy to dissipate.

Mr. Superchi, our correspondent in Parma, sent us two drawings made by a seeing medium, perfectly representing the situation. In one of them is seen the hand of the medium wrapped in a dark cloud — image of the perispiritual fluid of the evil Spirits — traversed by a luminous ray that brightened his hand; it is the good fluid that directs it and opposes itself to the action of the evil one. In the other, the hand is in shadow; the light is around the fog, which it cannot penetrate. That which the drawing restricts to the hand of the medium is to be understood as enveloping his whole body. There still remains the question of knowing whether the good Spirit is less powerful than the evil one. It is not the good Spirit that is weaker but, rather, the medium, who is not strong enough to free himself from the mantle that has been cast over him and to rid himself of the oppression of the arms that entwine him, in which, it is well to say, he at times takes pleasure. It is understood that, in this case, the good Spirit cannot triumph, for the other is preferred. Let us admit, now, the desire to disentangle oneself from this fluidic envelope, with which one's own is penetrated, like a garment penetrated with dampness: the desire will not suffice and the will is not always sufficient. It is a matter of struggling against an adversary. Now, when two men struggle body to body, it is the one of stronger muscles who will overcome the other. With a Spirit one must struggle, not body to body, but Spirit to Spirit;

and it is again the stronger who will win. Here the strength lies in the authority that one can exercise over the Spirit and such authority is subordinated to moral superiority. This is like the Sun: it dissipates the fog by the force of its rays. To strive to be good; to become better if one is already good; to purify oneself of one's imperfections; in a word, to raise oneself morally as much as possible, such is the means of acquiring the power to dominate the inferior Spirits, in order to drive them away. Otherwise they will mock your orders.

(The Mediums' Book, no. 252 and 279.)

Nevertheless — they will ask — why do the protecting Spirits not order them to withdraw? Certainly they can and they do so sometimes; but, in permitting the struggle, they also leave the merit of the victory. If they let persons deserving of a certain consideration struggle on, it is to prove their perseverance and to make them acquire more strength in the good; for them it is a kind of moral gymnastics.

— Here is the reply that we gave to a colonel of the Austrian general staff, in Hungary, Mr. P.., who consulted us about an affliction attributed to evil Spirits, apologizing for entitling us his friend, although he knew us only by name:

“Spiritism is the fraternal bond par excellence and you are right to think that those who share this belief must, even without knowing one another, treat one another as friends. I thank you for having had a good opinion of me and for giving me this title.

“I feel content to find in you a sincere and devoted adherent of this consoling doctrine. But, for that very reason that it is consoling, it must give moral strength and resignation to bear the trials of life which, most often, are expiations. Of this the Spiritist Review furnishes you numerous examples.

“As regards the ailment from which you suffer, I see no evident proof of the influence of evil Spirits, who would obsess you. Nevertheless, let us admit it as a hypothesis. Only a moral force could oppose another moral force and this can come only from you. Against a Spirit it is necessary to struggle Spirit to Spirit, and it is the stronger who will win. In similar cases it is necessary to strive to acquire the greatest possible sum of superiority by the will, by energy and by the moral qualities, in order to have the right to say to it: Vade retro! Thus, then, if you are in this case, it is not with the colonel's saber that you will overcome it, but with the sword of the angel, that is to say, virtue and prayer. The kind of dread and anguish that you experience in those moments is a sign of weakness, which the Spirit takes advantage of. Dominate the fear and with the will you will triumph; dominate it resolutely, as you do before the enemy, and believe me your most devoted and affectionate, A. K.”

It is possible that certain persons would prefer an easier recipe for expelling the evil Spirits: a few words to say, or signs to make, for example, which would be more convenient than correcting one's own defects. We regret it greatly, but we know no more efficacious process for overcoming an enemy than to be stronger than he. When we are sick, we have to resign ourselves to taking remedies, however bitter they may be. But, also, when we have had the courage to take them, how well we feel and how strong we become! We must, then, persuade ourselves that, to attain such an aim, there are no sacramental words, nor formulas, nor talismans, nor any material signs whatsoever. The evil Spirits laugh and often delight in indicating some, always taking care to say that they are infallible, in order better to capture the confidence of those of whom they wish to take advantage, because these, then, confident in the virtue of the process, give themselves over without fear. Before hoping to dominate the evil Spirit, it is necessary to dominate oneself. Of all the means of acquiring the strength to achieve it, the most efficacious is the will, seconded by prayer, prayer understood as of the heart and not of words, in which the mouth participates more than the thought. It is necessary to ask one's guardian angel and the good Spirits to assist one in the struggle. But it is not enough to ask them to expel the evil Spirit; it is necessary to remember the maxim: Help yourself, and Heaven will help you and, above all, to ask them for the strength that we lack to overcome our evil inclinations. For us such inclinations are worse than the evil Spirits, for it is they that attract them, as corruption attracts the birds of prey. By praying also for the obsessing Spirit we are returning to it evil with good and showing ourselves better than it, which is already a superiority. With perseverance, in the majority of cases we end by leading it to better sentiments and, from the persecutor that it was, we transform it into a grateful being. In sum, fervent prayer and serious efforts to improve oneself are the only means of driving away the evil Spirits, who recognize as masters those who practice the good, whereas formulas make them laugh. Anger and impatience excite them. It is necessary to wear them out, by showing more patience than they.

— It happens, however, that in some cases the subjugation reaches the point of paralyzing the will of the obsessed person, so that no serious assistance can be expected of him. It is principally then that the intervention of a third party becomes necessary, whether by prayer or by magnetic action. But the power of this intervention also depends on the moral ascendancy that the intervener may have over the Spirits, since, if they are not worth more, his action will be sterile. In this case the magnetic action will have the effect of penetrating the fluid of the obsessed person with a better fluid and of freeing him from the fluid of the evil Spirit. In operating, the magnetizer must have the double aim of opposing a moral force to another moral force and of producing upon the patient a kind of chemical reaction, to make use of a material comparison, expelling one fluid by another fluid. Thereby, he not only operates a salutary release, but he gives strength to the organs weakened by a long and at times vigorous oppression. Moreover, it is understood that the power of fluidic action lies not only in proportion to the energy of the will, but, above all, to the quality of the fluid introduced and, as we have said, such quality depends on the instruction and on the moral qualities of the magnetizer. From this it follows that an ordinary magnetizer, who acted mechanically in order to magnetize purely and simply, would produce little or no effect. A Spiritist magnetizer is absolutely necessary, who acts with knowledge of cause, with the intention of producing, not somnambulism or an organic cure, but the effects that we have just described. Furthermore, it is evident that a magnetic action directed in this sense does not fail to be useful in cases of ordinary obsession, because, then, if the magnetizer is seconded by the will of the obsessed person, instead of a single one the Spirit will be combated by two adversaries.

— It is necessary to say, also, that we often hold the strange Spirits responsible for malefices for which they are not responsible. Certain morbid states and certain aberrations, attributed to a hidden cause, in general are due exclusively to the spirit of the individual. The vexations that we ordinarily concentrate within ourselves, above all the disappointments of love, have led to the committing of many eccentric acts, attributed by mistake to obsession. Often the creature is its own obsessor.

— Let us add, finally, that certain tenacious obsessions, principally of persons of merit, at times form part of the trials to which they find themselves subjected. “At times, it even happens that obsession, when simple, is a task imposed upon the obsessed person, who must work for the improvement of the obsessor, as a father for a vicious son.”

We refer the reader, for more details, to The Mediums' Book.

It remains for us to speak of collective or epidemic obsession and, in particular, of that of Morzine; but this requires considerations of a certain extent in order to show, by the facts, its similitude with individual obsessions. And the proof of this we find in our own observations and in those that are recorded in the reports of the physicians. Furthermore, it remains for us to examine the effect of the means employed and, next, the action of exorcism and the conditions under which it can be efficacious or null. The amplitude of this second part obliges us to make it the object of a special article, to be published in the next issue. [1] T.'s note: See Allan Kardec's comment on question 135 “a” of The Spirits' Book.