We may also remember that if Margarita had not responded to the lure of the Jewel Song she would not have fallen a victim.
The weak spot in the defence was after all in her own nature.
We have considered the modus operandi of telepathic suggestion in detail because it forms the real basis of every kind of occult attack.
Whether it be a discarnate entity, a being of another order of evolution, a demon from the Pit, or merely the panic-stricken soul of a selfish friend, clinging to the life of form regardless of consequences, in all cases the opening gambit is the same.
Until the aura is pierced, there can be no entrance to the soul, and the aura is always pierced from within by the response of fear or desire going out towards the attacking entity.
If we can inhibit that instinctive emotional reaction, the edge of the aura will remain impenetrable, and will be as sure a defence against psychic invasion as the healthy and unbroken skin is a defence against bacterial infection.
It happens sometimes, however, that a rapport has been formed with the attacking entity in a previous incarnation, and therefore it holds, as it were, the key to the postern.
Such a problem is a very difficult one, and external assistance is needed for its solution.
The difficulty is increased by the fact that the victim is often disinclined to allow the break to be made, being bound to the attacking entity, whether discarnate or incarnate, by bonds of fascination, or even genuine affection.
A case with which I was acquainted throws so much light on various aspects of psychic interference by incarnate souls operating out of their bodies that it is of value to quote it at length.
In the summer of 1926 I saw in the papers a short paragraph describing the death of a certain man and his wife, which took place within a few hours of each other.
A couple of years previously I had been consulted by a friend of the wife, who was deeply perturbed about the state of affairs, and suspected psychic interference.
The wife, Mrs.
C.
we will call her, had begun to be troubled by nightmares, waking up in a state of intense fear, hearing the echoes of menacing words ringing in her ears.
At about the same time the husband, Mr.
C., developed what at first sight looked like epileptic fits.
A careful diagnosis by specialists, however, determined that although epileptiform, they were not true epilepsy.
Epilepsy is due either to a congenital tendency, whose nature is not fully understood by medical science, or to some injury or disease of the brain.
In congenital epilepsy the disease shows itself early in life; in fits due to disease, other symptoms are present which can be detected by a physical examination, such as changes in the eye that are revealed by the opthalmoscope.
The diagnosis can therefore be definitely established.
Moreover, there is one sure sign by means of which an epileptic fit can be distinguished with certainty from a hysterical or psychic seizure.
In true epilepsy the urine is involuntarily voided in the course of the fit.
This is a sure sign, and when it is absent we are safe in saying that the fit is not epileptic, whatever else it may be.
This is a useful point for those who have to deal with the pathologies that afflict the psychic temperament, for they will see plenty of seizures, and a sure method of distinguishing those that are of organic origin is very useful.
We must not, however, conclude that all cases of such incontinence are epileptics, for there are many other causes, both organic and functional.
In the case of Mr.
C.
this cardinal symptom was lacking.
The attacks, moreover, always took place in sleep, and it seemed as if they were more of the form of severe nightmare, verging on somnambulism.
It was a curious factor in the case that Mrs.
The subtle energy field or membrane surrounding the physical body, described across occultism as a protective boundary and interface through which psychic influence, suggestion, or attack must pass to reach the person within — pierced from within by the victim's own fear or desire, rather than breached from outside by force alone. Distinct from etheric_projection (the double's active departure FROM the body, not a boundary AROUND it) and linga_sharira (the persistent template-form of the subtle body, not its protective perimeter).
The passage centrally discusses the aura as a defensive barrier that can be pierced from within by emotional response.
The doctrine and practice by which the etheric or astral double separates from the physical body, at will or involuntarily, to act, travel, or encounter other entities on a plane subtler than the physical — remaining tethered to the body by a silver cord, and capable of returning physical injury (bruises, exhaustion) sustained while thus projected. Distinct from linga_sharira (the static doctrine that a subtle form persists as a template) in describing its active operative use, and from shamanic_journey (a trance-journey framed within a shamanic ritual complex, undertaken to return with knowledge, songs, or a recovered soul) in being a Western-esoteric technical practice with its own physiology of cord-attachment and reciprocal wounding.
The text refers to 'incarnate souls operating out of their bodies' causing interference, which describes the phenomenon of astral or etheric projection.
The interference of a discarnate human soul, or the lingering condition of a particular place, with the living — Dion Fortune's distinction between a soul in distress that clings out of ignorance and ties itself to a person or locality, versus deliberate malice. Distinct from animism (indwelling nature-spirits inherent to a place by nature, not a specific dead individual's soul) and from psychopomp_journey and ancestor_veneration (guiding the dead onward, or the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the honoured dead) in naming the pathological case: a soul that has NOT been guided onward and instead interferes, whether with a person or a place.
The text describes discarnate entities or souls clinging to the living and causing interference (nightmares, fear), fitting the definition of haunting as pathological interference by a soul not guided onward.
The doctrine that human volition, cultivated by discipline and emancipated from passion and servitude, is the primary instrument of magical operation — will confirmed by persistent acts acquires causal power over self, others, and nature; distinct from faith and from mere desire.
The text implies that inhibiting instinctive reaction (willpower) maintains the aura's defense, touching on the use of will in magical protection.
The doctrine and practice of one person deliberately inflicting harm on another through trained will, mind-power, or occult technique alone, without physical contact — producing exhaustion, illness, breakdown, or death in the victim; recognised cross-culturally as witchcraft, hexing, or the evil eye, and treated in Western esotericism as a genuine occult hazard requiring diagnosis and defence rather than dismissed as superstition. Distinct from magical_will (the general doctrine that trained volition has causal power, of which this is one malevolent application) and from spirit_conjuration (which subordinates an already-existing summoned spirit, rather than directing the operator's own power at a person).
The entire passage is an analysis of the nature, mechanism, and defense against psychic attack, making it the central theme.
The passage explicitly mentions 'previous incarnation' and rapport formed with an attacking entity from a past life, indicating belief in reincarnation/transmigration.