The Spiritist Review - 1863 Journal of Psychological Studies ALLAN KARDEC Original Title – La Revue Spirite – Allan Kardec Translator: Luiz A.V. Cheim IDEAK - Instituto de Divulgação Espírita Allan Kardec Spiritist Review Journal of Psychological Studies January 1863 Studies about the possessed of Morzine The causes of obsession and the means of fighting it Second Article1 In last December’s article we reviewed the method used by spirits to exert material actions upon human beings. It causes is entirely in the perispirit that is not only the principle of all Spiritist phenomena but also of a number of moral, physiological and pathological effects that were misunderstood before the knowledge of this agent whose discovery. When the time is right this will open new horizons to science when science decides to acknowledge the existence of the invisible world. As we have seen before the perispirit plays an important role in every phenomena of life. It is the source of multiple affections whose cause is uselessly addressed through surgery and other medical methods. One can also explain the reactions from individual to individual, the instinctive attractions and repulsions, the magnetic action, etc. In a free Spirit, that is discarnate, the perispirit replaces the material body. It is the sensitive agent, the organ through which the Spirit acts. The Spirit reaches the individual upon whom wishes to act, surrounding, penetrating, magnetizing and involving that individual through the fluidic and expansive nature of the perispirit.perispirit. People, embedded in that invisible world, are incessantly submitted to that influence in the same way that we are influenced by the atmosphere that we breathe and such influence is translated by moral and physiological effects that go unnoticed and that are frequently attributed to entirely opposite causes. This influence naturally differs according to the good or bad qualities of the Spirit as explained in the preceding article. If the Spirit is good and benevolent the influence or impression if you wish will be pleasant and healthy. It is like the caress of a mother with the baby in her arms. If the Spirit is bad and devilish the influence will be tough, painful, harmful and full of anxiety. It feels like a constraint rather than an embrace. We live in this fluidic ocean endlessly fighting contrary currents that we attract or repel or allow ourselves to be carried away according to our personal qualities but in which the individual always preserves the free- will, essential attribute of mankind, and according to which one can always choose the path to follow. As one can see this is entirely independent of the mediumistic faculty as it is commonly understood. Since the action of the invisible world is part of nature it is exerted upon individuals regardless of any knowledge about Spiritism. We are submitted to that influence as we are to the action of atmospheric electricity even 1 See December 1862 without knowing physics; as we become sick without knowing medicine. Now, as physics teaches us the cause of certain phenomena and medicine of certain diseases the study of the Spiritist science teaches us the cause of phenomena due to the occult influence of the invisible world and explain that to us, something that without such a cause would go unexplained. Mediumship is the means of observation. The medium – allow us the comparison – is the laboratory tool through which the action of the invisible world is translated in a positive way. It is through the facility that we are offered to have the experiments repeated that mediumship allows us to study the modes and several nuances of that action. It was from that study and observations that the Spiritist science was born. Every individual that in any way feels the influence of the Spirits is for that matter a medium and hence it can also be said that every individual are mediums. However, it is through effective, conscious and facultative mediumship that the existence of the invisible world was demonstrated and it was through the diversity of the obtained or provoked manifestations that we learned about the quality of the beings that inhabit that world and role they play in nature. The medium did to the invisible world the same that the microscope did to the world of the infinitely small. In a word it is then a new force, a new power, a new law that was revealed to us. It is really unconceivable that disbelief alone may repel this idea for it presupposes the existence of a soul in us, an intelligent principle that outlives the body. If it were about the discovery of a material substance, rather than an intelligent one, it would be accepted without difficulty but the action of an intelligence beyond mankind is a superstition. If we go back to the general facts based on the observation of mediumistic events, we conclude by the similarity of causes given the similarity of effects. It is through the analogy between the Morzine phenomena and those that are observed daily through mediumistic means that it seems evident to us that there is a participation of malevolent Spirits. In those cases, it would not be less evident for anyone who have given some thought to the isolated cases reported in the Spiritist Review. The only difference is in the aliment’s characteristics. History registers several similar cases among which the religious women of Loudun, the convulsionary of Saint-Médard, the case of Cévènes and the possessed from the times of Jesus Christ. The latter ones in particular presented remarkable analogy with those of Morzine. Something that deserves a special note is the fact that wherever those phenomena were produced, there was a dominant idea that they were due to the Spirits and such idea was somehow intuitive in those who were affected. If we want to refer to our first article with the theory of the obsession contained in The Mediums’ Book and the events reported in the Spiritist Review, we will see that the action of the bad Spirits upon the creatures that are taken over presents nuances that are extremely varied in intensity and duration according to the degree of evilness and obstinacy of the Spirit and also according to the moral state of the person that gives them a more or less easy access. Such action is frequently momentary and accidental, more malicious and unpleasant than dangerous, as in the case that we reported in the preceding article. The following fact belongs to that category. Mr. Indermühle, from Berne, a member of the Spiritist Society of Paris, told us that the administrator of his estate in Zimmerwald, a man of herculean strength, felt the other night as being grabbed by someone who shook him violently. It was like a nightmare. But the man was very much awake and stood up trying to fight back for some time. When he finally freed himself, he took his sword that was hanging by his bed and unsuccessfully sought the aggressor in the dark. He then lit a candle and searched everywhere finding nothing. The door was closed. As soon as he returned to bed the gardener who was sleeping in the adjacent bedroom started to ask for help shouting that he was being strangled. The caretaker rushed to the gardener’s bedroom but like in his case found nothing. A woman servant that was also sleeping in the same building heard a noise. On the day after they all came horrified to tell Mr. Indermühle what had happened. After learning about every single detail and certifying that no stranger could have entered the rooms Mr. Indermühle concluded that it was a bad prank from some Spirit because for some time now unequivocal physical manifestations of several kinds had manifested themselves in his own house. He appeased his servants asking them to carefully observe the details of any occurrence in case it happened again. Since he and his wife are mediums, he then evoked the disturbing Spirit that confessed the event and apologized saying: “I wanted to speak with you because I am unhappy and need your prayers. For a long time now I have been doing everything I can to draw your attention: I touch you – I have even pulled your ear (confirmed by Mr. Indermühle) but all without any result. I then thought that creating the situation last night you would think of calling me. You have just done that so I am happy but I assure you that I had no bad intention. Promise you will call me again a few times and pray for me.” Mr. Indermühle gave him a severe warning, repeated the conversation and gave him moral advices that he listened attentively. He prayed for the Spirit and asked his people to do the same. They did, as they were all sympathetic, and everything went back to normal. Unfortunately, not every Spirit has good intentions. This one was not bad. There are some, however, whose actions are tenacious, permanent and can even bring unpleasant consequences to the health of the individual and more than that to the intellectual capabilities, if the Spirit subjugates the victim to the point of neutralizing the free-will and hence leading to carry out extravagances. This is the case with obsessive insanity that, although similar in its effects, is very different to pathological insanity with respect to its causes. In our travels we saw the obsessed young man that we mentioned in the January 1861 issue of the Review with the title “The Rapping Spirit of Aube” and we heard from his father and from an eyewitnesses the confirmation of these facts.