How did the obsessing spirits come to be known? What led to the discovery of this cause of severe spiritual torment?

“The mediumship. It was through mediumship that the hidden enemies betrayed their presence. It did for them what the microscope did for the infinitesimally small: it revealed a whole world”. (emphasis mine)

Did Spiritism attract bad spirits?

“Spiritism did not attract bad spirits: it discovered them and provided the means to paralyze their action and, consequently, drive them away. He did not bring evil, for evil has always existed. On the contrary, he brought the remedy to the evil, showing him the causes. Once the action of the invisible world is recognized, the key to a number of misunderstood phenomena will be in place and science, enriched by this new law, will see new horizons open in front of it. When will you get there? When he no longer professes materialism, as this holds back his progress, with insurmountable barriers”. (emphasis mine)

Kardec raises an issue that in various spiritual circles torments many companions who face more serious obsessive processes. Let us analyze:

Could the Protecting Spirit (who is acting in the treatment of the obsession) be less powerful than the Obsessing Spirit?

“... Let us imagine a medium involved and penetrated by the perispiritual fluid of a bad spirit. So that the good thing can act on the medium, it needs to penetrate that envelope and it is known that light hardly penetrates a thick fog. Depending on the degree of obsession, the fog will be permanent, tenacious or intermittent and, consequently, more or less easy to dispel.

“It is not the good spirit who is weaker: it is the medium who is not strong enough to get rid of the mantle that has been thrown over him, to get rid of the arms that squeeze him with what – it is good to say – sometimes gets involved. It is understandable that, in this case, the good Spirit cannot dominate, since the other is the preferred one Let us admit, now, the desire to get rid of that fluidic envelope, which penetrated in yours, like a garment penetrated by moisture: desire will not suffice and will not always be enough.” (emphasis mine)

Kardec discusses the action of protective spirits, which, at times, in our view, may seem too subtle or excessively slow and gradual for the treatment of serious cases. Would it not a more intense and faster action be more interesting? In other words, we would ask:

Why do not superior spirits force the removal of the obsessing spirits who work on other spirits?

“No doubt they can and sometimes they do it. However, by allowing the fight, they also leave the merit of victory. If people of merit are left struggling in certain respects, it is to prove their perseverance and make them acquire “more strength” in good. It is a kind of “moral gymnastics” for them. (emphasis mine)

Kardec comments on the ineffectiveness of external formulas and the need for “spiritual strengthening”. Let us follow the Kardecian thought:

“... certain people would prefer another, easier recipe to expel the spirits: a few words to pronounce or signs to do, for example, which would be more comfortable than correcting their own defects. We are sorry, but we do not know of a more effective way to “defeat an enemy than to be stronger than him”. When we are sick, we have to resign ourselves to taking medicine, however bitter they may be. However, it feels good and how strong it is! We have to persuade ourselves that, in order to reach such a goal, there are no sacramental words, nor formulas, nor talismans, nor any material signs. The bad spirits laugh and, sometimes, like to indicate some, which they say are infallible, to better gain the trust of those they abuse, because then, confident in the virtue of the process, they surrender without fear.” (emphasis mine)

On the need for self-mastery, will and prayer to overcome the obsessive process. Let us analyze the Kardecian discussion:

“Before hoping to dominate the bad spirit, it is necessary to dominate oneself. Of all the means to acquire the strength to achieve this, the most effective is the will, seconded by prayer. Prayer understood as prayer from the heart and not those in which the mouth participates more than the mind. It is necessary to ask your guardian angel and the good spirits to assist us in the struggle. However, it is not enough to ask them to expel the Spirit: it is necessary to remember the maxim: “Help yourself, and Heaven will help you”, Ask them, above all, for the strength that we lack to overcome our bad inclinations. We consider them worse than bad spirits, because these inclinations attract them, as rottenness attracts birds of prey. Praying also for the obsessing Spirit, we pay well for evil, we show ourselves better than him, which is already a superiority. With perseverance, in most cases, you end up leading him to better feelings, transforming the obsessor into a recognized friend”. (emphasis mine)

Kardec clarifies that prayer, moral transformation and patience to tolerate such spiritual presences (obsessing spirits) are essential to resist negative influence and even eliminate it definitively. He also stresses, once again, the ineffectiveness of external formulas. Let us see:

“In summary, fervent prayer and serious efforts to improve oneself are the only means of warding off evil spirits, who recognize those who do good as masters, while formulas provoke laughter in them. Anger and impatience excite them. You have to tire them out by being more patient.” (emphasis mine)

The Encoder of Spiritism also clarifies the greater complexity of the disobsessive treatment in more serious cases of obsession, such as subjugation, which requires magnetic help from other people, that is, from fluid-therapists and/or magnetizers. He also highlights the need for so-called “moral authority”, that is, a reasonable level of spiritualization on the part of the agent responsible for disobsessive therapy. Let us analyze the Kardecian text:

“... Subjugation reaches the point of paralyzing the obsessed person's will and no valuable competition can be expected from him. It is especially then that the intervention of a third party becomes necessary, either by prayer or by magnetic action. Moreover, the power of this intervention also depends on the moral ascendancy that the intervener may have over the spirits. Because if this one is not worth more, your action will be sterile”. (emphasis mine)

Then, Allan Kardec clarifies about the mechanism of fluidic action of the magnetic action (which we could identify in the “Spiritist Pass”) in helping the obsessed. It is worth noting that Kardec already emphasized the effect of the magnetic action on the physical body. Here is the explanation:

 “...the magnetic action will have the effect of penetrating the fluid of the obsessed by a better fluid and releasing the fluid of the evil spirit. When operating, the magnetizer must have the double objective of opposing one moral force to another moral force, and producing a kind of chemical reaction on the patient, to use a material comparison, expelling one fluid by another fluid. Thus, not only does it bring about a healthy detachment, but also it gives strength to organs weakened by long and sometimes vigorous domination. Incidentally, it is understood that the power of the fluidic action is not only due to the willpower, but, above all, to the quality of the fluid introduced and, as we said, such quality depends on the instruction and moral qualities of the magnetizer. (emphasis mine)

Kardec also highlights the difference between an ordinary magnetic process, that is, a spontaneous fluidic exchange that occurs on a daily basis, to a spiritist magnetic action (Spiritist pass versus spontaneous magnetism). Let us look at the text:

“...an ordinary magnetizer, which acted mechanically to magnetize purely and simply, would produce little or no effect. A “spiritist” magnetizer is absolutely necessary, who acts with knowledge of the facts, with the intention of producing, not sleepwalking or organic healing, but the effects that we have just described”. (emphasis mine)

Kardec also highlights the difference in the treatment of the subjugated to the treatment of the simple obsessed, since the subjugated does not consciously act to get out of the situation of spiritual harassment, while the simple obsessed acts together with the spiritist magnetizer to achieve the cure. Therefore, it is about two wills added together and not just one. Let us read:

“...it is evident that a magnetic action directed in this direction is still useful in cases of ordinary obsession, because then if the magnetizer is supported by the will of the obsessed, the spirit will be fought by two adversaries, instead of by only one.” (emphasis mine)

About self-obsession, at the end of the article, Allan Kardec states:

“It is also important to say that strange spirits are often held responsible for evil for which they are not responsible. Certain morbid states and certain aberrations, which are attributed to an occult cause, are sometimes due exclusively to the spirit of the individual. The annoyances often concentrated on oneself, the sufferings of love, mainly, have led to the commission of many eccentric acts, which are mistakenly taken to be an obsession. Many times the creature is its own obsessor”. (emphasis mine)

Kardec also clarifies that “people of merit” also suffer from obsession. Let us see:

“...certain tenacious obsessions, especially of people of merit, are sometimes part of the tests to which they are submitted. Sometimes it even happens that the obsession, when simple, is a task imposed on the obsessed person, who must work to improve the obsessor, like a father with a vicious son”. (emphasis mine)

Considering the range of subjects and the depth of the approach, we highlight the need to read, in full, Allan Kardec's articles on the so-called "Morzine’s possessed", covering not only the two texts currently analyzed, which are the 1862 publications, like those of 1863.

Bibliographic references:

Kardec, A. The Obsession – Origin, symptoms and cures [Translation by Wallace Leal V. Rodrigues]. Publishing House “O Clarim”. Sixth edition. 2000.

Kardec, A. Spiritist Magazine (Fifth Year – 1862) [Translation by Salvador Gentile]. Spiritist Diffusion Institute (IDE). First edition. 1993.