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who have recently come over to the Other Side are confused, and do not realize that they are dead.
These earthbound entities are attracted to the magnetic auras of the living, and try to extend their earth-
lives vicariously by dislodging other souls from an unguarded body.
The risk of obsession is one of the greatest pitfalls that can endanger a novice in psychic
experimentation. Outside entities create confusion at the best, and can cause immorality, crime,
invalidism, amnesia and even insanity. It has been said that a large percentage of people now
inhabiting penal institutions -especially those with no previous criminal records - may be the victims
of obsession. This is particularly suspected if their behavior indicates a sudden complete change in
personality and an obvious carelessness in failing to cover their own tracks and leaving behind clues.
Their common explanation is "Something made me do it."
Many more are now in insane asylums, often condemned for life by the presence of an entity which
would be exorcised in a more enlightened climate.
When a case of possession is suspected, the unfortunate victim can be rescued sometimes by clerical
exorcism, but more often by the services of a medium, who will draw the entity out of the victim and
into herself, there to be dealt with by a discarnate "rescue squad" headed and directed by her spirit
control.
While the possessing spirit is in the custody of the medium, she may adopt his mode of speech, his
mannerisms. She may mouth foul imprecations. When the spirit is taken over by the spirit rescue
squad, there is often indication of a great struggle, and when the séance is over, the medium will be
completely exhausted physically, indicating the monumental struggle she has been through.
Harold Sherman in his How to Make ESP Work for You gives us his own personal first-hand
experience with possession, 20th century style.
The central figure of this experience was a brilliant author and lecturer, once a profound skeptic of
ESP, but now a fanatic devotee, having investigated it. (It very often happens that skeptics turned
converts go completely overboard in their enthusiasm, and wrap themselves up so closely in the study
of ESP phenomena that it dominates their whole life.)
Such was the case with Sherman's friend.
A long period went by in which Sherman did not hear from his friend or have any notice of his
lectures or his writings. On Sherman's next trip to New York some two years later, he decided to
investigate.
The man's wife answered the phone. "I have hoped and prayed that you would get in touch with us,"
she cried. "You must come out this evening and see what has happened to Carl. It is terrible."
"This led to an experience I shall never forget," Sherman relates. "I met a man who was a shadow of
his former self, physically and mentally. He told me that, incredible as it may sound, he had been
possessed by a low entity who had been using his body for satisfying elemental desires. When the
spirit was in control, he was totally unconscious of how his body was used or where it was taken. He,
who had been a teetotaler, was caused to go to bars and to drink, and to be returned home in a drunken,
sordid condition. There were involvements with other women and all manner of disgraceful acts that
were entirely foreign to the man in his normal state of consciousness. The entity, when in possession
of his body, would attack his wife both physically and verbally. A stream of profanities and
obscenities would flow from a mouth that had never uttered them before."
The man, Sherman relates, had been taken to doctors and psychiatrists but no one could seem to help
him. He never knew at what moment of the day or night the evil spirit would take over; consequently,
he had abruptly cut off all his former contacts, stopped writing and lecturing, and was a virtual
prisoner in his own home.
"At this point in our conversation," Sherman continues, "I saw the wife give a startled glance at her
husband. She indicated with a guarded nod of the head that I should look at him. When I did so, I saw
an entirely different person staring at me. There was hatred and defiance in the eyes. The face was
contorted and the features drawn into an expression totally unlike the personality that had been
expressing itself through the same body a few moments before.
"This entity asked me who the hell I was, and ordered me out of the apartment with a blast of profanity
and threatening gestures.
"Who are you?" I demanded. "What are you doing in this body. Where do you belong? Do you know
where you are?"
These questions, pointedly asked, seemed to have impact. The intelligence staring out at me through
my friend's eyes stopped its raving and began to mumble.
"You have no right in this body," I continued, and repeated: "You do not belong here! Get out-and stay
out!
"My order to get out and stay out was obeyed with dramatic suddenness...suddenly I was looking into
the eyes of my friend again, who had recovered consciousness without any realization of what had
occurred.
"Since that night, my friend has been free of obsessive influences. The entity that so devastated his life
has never returned. He has resumed his writing and lecturing with his old-time vigor and clarity of
mind."
One of the most spectacular cases of possession in psychic annals - as well as one of the most
persuasive proofs of spirit survival-is that of thirteen-year-old Lurancy Vennum, who came to be
known in psychic circles as "The Watseka Wonder." This case is said to be the most thoroughly
investigated in all psychical research.
The story starts in 1878 in Watseka, Illinois, when the child began to behave peculiarly. She would go
into some sort of convulsion, in the midst of which she would use foul, vicious language and draw
down imprecations on her family and friends.
The family consulted a doctor who was also a spiritualist; he suggested to her when she was in a
hypnotic trance state that a good entity would enter her body and banish the evil one that had obsessed
her.
This is where Mary Roff entered the picture.
Mary had been a local girl who had died at the age of eighteen several years earlier, when Lurancy was
only a baby. She now took over tenancy of Lurancy's body and remained for four months. Lurancy's
consciousness completely disappeared throughout that period. In its place came the thinking apparatus,
personality and memories of Mary Roff. For nearly sixteen weeks the thirteen-year-old body looked [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]