Questions
A. From where does the Spirit draw the elements that form its perispirit?
B. Do spirits whose perispirit is so dense that they confuse it with their physical body?
C. Does the nature of the perispirit have anything to do with the spirit’s degree of advancement?
Text for reading
832. Obsession and possession - Evil spirits swarm all around the earth as a result of the moral backwardness of its inhabitants. The malevolent action of such spirits makes up part of the calamities to which humankind is exposed on this world. Obsession, which is one of the effects of this action — like infirmities and all the other tribulations of life — should therefore be regarded as a trial or expiation and accepted as such.
833. Obsession is the persistent action that an evil spirit exerts upon a particular individual. It presents highly diverse characteristics, from a simple mental influence without perceivable outward signs to the complete disruption of the organism and the mental faculties. It obliterates all mediumistic faculties. In auditory and psychographic mediumship, it results from the obstinacy of a spirit manifesting itself to the exclusion of all others.
834. Just as infirmities are the result of physical imperfections that render the body accessible to pernicious outside influences, obsession is always the result of a moral imperfection that allows entry to an evil spirit. A physical cause may be opposed by a physical force; a moral cause must be opposed by a moral force. In order to protect oneself from infirmities one must strengthen the body; to guard oneself against obsession, one must strengthen the soul; thus the need of those who are the object of an obsession to work on their self-improvement, which is often enough to rid themselves of an obsessor without the help of outside persons.
835. Such help becomes necessary when the obsession degenerates into subjugation and possession, because then the patient sometimes loses his or her will and free will.
836. Obsession is nearly always an expression of vengeance taken by a spirit; it most frequently has its source in the relationships between the obsessed and obsessor in a previous life.
837. In cases of severe obsession, the obsessed is as if enveloped and impregnated with a pernicious fluid that neutralizes the action of healthy fluids and repels them. It is this fluid from which the obsessed must be disencumbered. Now, an evil fluid cannot be repelled by an evil fluid. By means of an action identical to that of a healing medium in cases of illness, it is necessary to expel the evil fluid with the aid of a better one.
838. This is the mechanical action, but it is not always enough; above all, it is also necessary to act upon the intelligent being, with whom one must have the right to speak with authority, and such authority is not given except by moral ascendancy; the greater the ascendancy the greater the authority.
839. However, that is not all. In order to assure deliverance, it is necessary to lead the perverse spirit to renounce its evil designs. It is necessary to awaken in it repentance and the desire of the good, together with the aid of skillfully guided instructions through particular evocations aimed at its moral education. One can then have the sweet satisfaction of having freed an incarnate and having converted an imperfect spirit.
840. The task becomes easier when the obsessed understand their situation and bring the concourse of their will and prayer. Such is not the case when the obsessed, seduced by the deceiving spirit, are deluded as to the qualities of their obsessor and take pleasure in the error in which they are immersed, because then, far from being of any help, they reject all assistance. This is a case of fascination, which is always infinitely more troublesome than the most violent subjugation.
841. In all cases of obsession, prayer is the most powerful help in acting against an obsessor spirit.
842. In obsession, the spirit acts outwardly with the help of its perispirit, which becomes identified with that of the incarnate. The latter then finds him or herself entwined in a mesh and constrained to act against his or her will.
843. In possession, instead of acting outwardly, the possessor spirit replaces — so to speak — the incarnate one. It chooses to make his or her body its home, but without the possessed person abandoning it for good, since such can happen only at death. Consequently, possession is always temporary and intermittent, because a discarnate spirit cannot permanently take the place of an incarnate one, since the molecular union of the perispirit and the body can occur only at the time of conception.
844. Temporarily possessing the incarnate’s body, the spirit uses it as though it were its own: it speaks through its mouth, sees through its eyes and acts with its arms just as it would when alive. This is not the same as in the case of speaking mediumship, where the incarnate spirit speaks by transmitting the thought of a discarnate spirit. In this case, it is the discarnate spirit who speaks and acts, and if one knew it when it was alive, one would recognize it by its language, its voice, its gestures and even its facial expressions.
845. Obsession is always the act of a malevolent spirit. Possession can be the act of a good spirit who comes to speak, and in order to make a greater impression on its listeners, borrows the body of an incarnate who loans it voluntarily to it just as if he or she were lending his or her garments. This occurs without any disturbance or discomfort, and during this time the incarnate spirit finds itself at liberty, as during the state of emancipation; but more often it stands beside its replacement in order to listen to it.
846. When the possessor spirit is evil, things are otherwise. It does not borrow the body; it seizes it if its owner does not have the moral power to resist. It does so through a nasty action toward the incarnate, whom it tortures and torments in all sorts of ways, even so far as to murder him or her either by strangulation or by throwing him or her into the fire or other dangerous places. It makes use of the organs and limbs of the unfortunate patient; it blasphemes, insults and mistreats those who are nearby; it hands its victim over to eccentricities and acts that display all the characteristics of raging insanity.
847. Occurrences of this type, in different degrees of intensity, are quite numerous, and many cases of insanity have no other cause. Frequently, they are accompanied by pathological disorders that are merely consequential, and against which medical treatments are powerless as long as the originating cause persists.
848. By making known this source of a part of human miseries, Spiritism indicates the means to remedy it: the way is to act upon the author of the evil, who, as an intelligent being, must be treated by the intelligence.
849. Obsession and possession most frequently involve individuals, but at times they are epidemic. Whenever a cloud of evil spirits descends upon a locality, it is as if a troop of enemy forces has come to invade it. In this case, the number of affected individuals may be considerable.
850. Chapter XV - The superiority of Jesus’ nature - The phenomena reported in the Gospel, and which until now have been considered miraculous, belong in their majority to the order of psychic phenomena; that is, those that have the faculties and attributes of the soul as their primary cause. In comparing them to those that were described and explained in the preceding chapter, one will have no difficulty in realizing that between the two groups there is an identity of cause and effect.
851. History has shown that similar phenomena have occurred in all times and among all cultures, the reason being that since there are incarnate and discarnate souls, the same effects must have been produced. It is true that one might contest the trustworthiness of history on this point; however, today the phenomena are being produced right before our eyes, and, we might add, naturally and by individuals who have nothing exceptional about them. The very fact that a phenomenon can be reproduced under identical conditions is sufficient to prove that it is possible and that it is subject to a particular law; thus, from that point on, it is no longer miraculous.
852. As we have seen, the principle of psychic phenomena rests upon the properties of the perispiritual fluid, which constitutes the magnetic agent; upon the manifestations of the spirit life during incarnation and after death; and, finally, upon the compositional state of spirits and their role as an active force of nature.
853. Once these elements are known and their effects proven, one must consequently accept the possibility of certain phenomena that were rejected as long as they were attributed to a supernatural origin.
854. Without any preconceptions as to the nature of Christ – which is beyond the scope of this investigative work — and considering him, hypothetically, only as a highly evolved spirit, we must nonetheless recognize him as one of the highest order, and that, due to his virtues, he is placed far above earthly humanity. Because of the immense results that it produced, his incarnation on this world could only have been one of those missions that are entrusted to the direct messengers of the Divinity in order to fulfill its designs.
855. Even supposing that Christ was not God per se, but a messenger from God sent to transmit God’s word, he would be more than a prophet, for he would be a divine messiah.
856. As a man, he had the bodily composition of corporeal beings; but as a pure spirit detached from matter, he would have lived the spirit life more than the corporeal life, the weaknesses of which he would not have had. The superiority of Jesus over other humans was not linked to the particularities of his body, but to those of his spirit, which dominated matter completely, and that of his perispirit, which was drawn from the most quintessential portion of earth’s fluids.
857. His soul must not have been connected to his body except by strictly indispensable ties, and since it was constantly detached, it must have given him a second sight that was not only continuous but exceptionally penetrating and far superior to anything seen among ordinary human beings. Such must have also been the case regarding all the phenomena that depend on the perispiritual or psychic fluids. The quality of these fluids endowed him with an immense magnetic power seconded by his incessant desire to do good.
858. Did he act as a medium in the healings he performed? Could he be considered as a powerful healing medium? No, because a medium is an intermediary, an instrument that discarnate spirits use. Christ, however, had no need of assistance; he was the one who assisted others. Therefore, he acted by himself in virtue of his own personal power, just as incarnates can do in certain cases and according to the measure of their abilities. Moreover, what other spirit would have dared to insufflate him with its own thoughts and charge him with transmitting them? If he did receive an outside influx, it could only have been from God. According to the definition given by one spirit, Christ was God’s medium.
Answer Key
A. From where does the Spirit draw the elements that form its perispirit?
Spirits extract their perispirit from the environment in which they find themselves, which means that this envelope is formed from environmental fluids. The result is that the compositional elements of the perispirit must vary according to the different worlds. When the spirit emigrates from the earth, it also leaves behind its fluidic envelope and puts on another that is suited to the world where it is going.
From this a crucial fact may be drawn: the inner composition of the perispirit is not identical among all the incarnate or discarnate spirits that populate the earth or the space surrounding it. However, the same does not apply to the corporeal body, which, as has been shown, is formed of identical elements, however highly or little evolved the spirit may be. Also, the effects produced by the body are the same for everyone and their needs are the same, whereas everybody is different with respect to their perispirit. (Genesis, Chap. XIV, items 8 and 10.)
B. Do spirits whose perispirit is so dense that they confuse it with their physical body?
Yes. There are some whose fluidic envelope, even though quite ethereal and imponderable with respect to tangible matter, is still too heavy — if we may so express ourselves — with respect to the spirit world to allow them to leave their environment. In this category one must include those whose perispirit is so dense that they confuse it with their corporeal body, and who, for that reason, believe they are still among the living. These spirits — and there is a great number of them — remain on earth’s surface like incarnates, believing they are still minding their earthly concerns. (Genesis, Chap. XIV, item 9)
C. Does the nature of the perispirit have anything to do with the spirit’s degree of advancement?
Yes. The nature of the fluidic envelope (perispirit) always has to do with the spirit’s degree of moral advancement. (Genesis, Chap. XIV, items 9 and 10)
