Procedures to ward off Evil Spirits Part 1

The Spirits’ language is the true criterion by which we can judge them.

Test if the Spirits are of God. (I John, 4:1) 

The most painful obsessive processes are spread throughout the Earth... A bunch of creatures suffer under the terrible and cruel iron hand of the invisible performance of the obsessing Spirits. There are cases in which, although the influence and performance of the evil Spirits are clearly and prominently displayed, those involved remain - through ignorance or prejudice - skeptical of such influences ... And then many incarnates - duly influenced by the agents of darkness - have the most uncommon and even violent behavior without any action being taken with regard to the obsessors who continue to freely act and influence them [1].

We can never forget or undermine the information obtained by Kardec in question 459 of "The Book of Spirits": "... They (the Spirits) influence incarnates much more than we can imagine, since, ordinarily, they are the ones who drive them”.

Our beloved medium and Spiritist speaker, Raul Teixeira, tells us in one of his remarkable talks the dialogue he had (during a mediumistic meeting) with a Spirit, enemy of Light, that made a terrifying statement: the Spirit said that we have (incarnate and disincarnated) to work together with the sick on the two planes of life. But we, the incarnates, removed the suffering Spirits from the places where they had been hiding, and we sent them to the aid and clarifying departments of the Greater World, and we do this with pleasure; considering such a feat a true victory against the darkness! But they (the enemies of Light) do not take away from where they are, the Spirits that fall into their net, especially if they are Spiritists in their Institutions: after transforming them into agents of their shameless and unhealthy interests, they leave us in the respective Spiritist houses to cause all kinds of problems to Jesus’ true workers. This explains the enormous difficulties faced by the Spiritist groups of today, since there are not few, those who are gathered to their malefic and suffocating dominions as the said Spirit states!

"Man's pride, emotional instability, carelessness, and weakness are what strengthen the evil Spirits." This is important information inserted in question 498 of "The Book of Spirits."

In addition, obsessional processes and spiritual influences in general are associated with the consent of those who are attuned to them, since all deviations from Divine Laws and moral deformities act in the sense of providing "plugs" of magnetic inductions, facilitating the coupling between the components of the obsessive process. Hence the logical reasoning that the obsessor's success lies in the fact that he finds no defenses and resistances in his victim, who on the contrary offers him all the reciprocity required for the malefic and harmful obsessive process.

According to Allan Kardec², "(...) the interference of the deceiving Spirits within the Spiritist activities and especially in written communications is one of the greatest difficulties of Spiritism; it is known from experience that they have no scruple about taking assumed names, even reputable names. Are there ways to drive them away? Here's the question! For this purpose certain persons employ what might be called procedures, i.e., they are particular formulas of evocation, or species of exorcisms, as to make them swear in God's name that they tell the truth, make them write certain things, and so on.  We know someone who, at each sentence, summoned the Spirit to sign its name; if it were the truth, he would write the name without difficulty; if it were false, it would stop soon, or in the middle, without being able to finish it; we saw this person receiving the most ridiculous communications from the Spirits who signed the borrowed name with perfect firmness. Well! We declare that if some Spirits, a little more scrupulous, stop by the idea of ​​perjury or profanation, there are those who swear to all that is requested, who sign all the names, who laugh at everything, and face the presence of the most venerable signs, from which we conclude that, among what can be called procedures, there is no formula, no material expedient that can serve as an effective way to hold them back.

In this case, it will be said, there is nothing more to do than to stop writing. This would not be the best way; far from it, it would be worse in many cases. We have said, and it is not enough to repeat it, that the action of the Spirits upon us is constant, and is no less real because it is hidden. If it must be evil, it will be even more malefic due to the fact that the enemy will be hidden; by written communications, it reveals itself, it unmasks itself, it becomes known with whom it has a relation, and therefore it can be fought. But, if there is no way to push it away, what to do then? We do not say that there are no means, but we do say that most of those that are employed are useless; and this is the issue that we propose to develop.

One cannot forget the fact that Spirits constitute a whole world, a whole population that fills the space, that circulates beside us, and that mixes with everything that we do. If the veil that conceals them should be lifted up, we would see them around us, coming and going, following or avoiding us according to the degree of their sympathy; some indifferent, real wanderers of the hidden world, the others very busy, either with their own selves or with the men to whom they cling to, with a more or less meritorious purpose, according to the qualities that distinguish them. Resuming, we would see a copy of the human race with its good and its bad qualities its virtues and its vices... Their company - from which we cannot escape, because there is no place so well hidden that the Spirits cannot access – influences us, and due to our ignorance, it is a constant influence. Some lead us to good, others to evil, and our decisions are, most of the times, the result of their suggestions; happy are we when we have enough lucidity to tell the difference between the good and the bad path to which they try and drag us to…

Since the Spirits are nothing else than men stripped of their somatic coarse bodies, souls that survive their bodies, it follows that there are Spirits since there are human beings in the Universe.

 (...) The interference of evil Spirits in written communications is not a specific danger of Spiritism, because if there is danger, the danger exists without it, because it is permanent; this does not fully convince: it is simply a difficulty; however, it is easy to succeed handling it suitably.

It may be first stated as a principle that evil Spirits go only where something attracts them; therefore, when they mix with communications, it is because they find empathy in the environment where they present themselves, or at least weak sides from which they hope to take advantage; in the whole process, they do not find enough moral power to repel them. Among the causes that attract them, it is necessary to put in the first place the moral imperfections of all nature, because evil always sympathizes with evil; secondly, the great trust with which his words are received.

When a communication shows an evil origin, it would not be logic to infer that there is similarity between the Spirit and those who evoke it. Often the most honest people are exposed to the deceptions of deceiving Spirits, as it happens all over the world, honest people deceived by rogues; but when you are attentive, the rogues can do nothing; this is what happens with Spirits too. When an honest person is deceived by them, it is due to two things: the first is a very absolute trust that dissuades the person from all examination; secondly, that the best qualities do not exclude a certain weak side that becomes a prey of the evil Spirits, eager to seize the slightest defects in the armor. We do not speak of pride and ambition, which are more than defective, but of a certain weakness of character, and above all of prejudices which these Spirits know how to exploit skillfully by flattering them, and in this respect take all the masks to inspire more confidence.

Extremely crude communications are the least dangerous because they cannot deceive anyone; those who deceive the most are those that have a false appearance of wisdom or seriousness, in a word, that of hypocrites and pseudo wise Spirits; some may deceive in good faith, out of ignorance or foolishness, others act only by cunning. Let us see, then, the means to get rid of them: the first thing is not to attract them at first, and avoid everything that can give them access. Moral dispositions are, as we have seen, a preponderant cause; but, abstracted from this cause, the mode employed is not without influence.

Among the causes that have a powerful influence on the quality of Spirits who attend Spiritist circles, one cannot omit the nature of the things they are concerned with. Those who set themselves a serious and useful purpose attract serious Spirits; those who have no other purpose but to satisfy a vain curiosity or personal interests expose themselves to mystifications if not worse. In short, the most sublime teachings, the most useful ones, can be drawn from Spiritist communications when one knows how to direct them; the whole point is not to be trapped by the cunning of mocking or malevolent Spirits; now, for that, the essential thing is to know who to deal with.

Let us first listen, in this regard, to the advice which the Spirit Saint Louis offered in the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies through the intermediary of Mr. R ..., one of his good mediums. This is a spontaneous communication, which he received one day at his house, with the mission of transmitting it: "Whatever the legitimate expectation of the Spirits who preside over your works, there is a recommendation that we could not repeat enough, and that you should always keep in mind when you devote yourself to your studies: it is to weigh and mature, to submit to the control of the most severe reason all the communications you receive, not to neglect, as long as an answer seems doubtful or obscure, to ask the clarifications necessary to your understanding”. (Continues in the next issue.)