11. The Psychic Element In Mental Disturbance-f

It is possible for the Qlippotic demons to gain so powerful a hypnotic influence over a victim that he is powerless to break it by any effort of his own will, nor can the orthodox type of psycho-therapy touch the root of the trouble. The exorcism may have to be repeated two or three times in the course of the treatment, because the rapports may be renewed after they have been broken. But once the patient’s complexes have been cleared up, they will not return. In any case, an exorcism produces marked temporary benefit; during the lull the patient gets a chance to pull himself together and the evil influences are undermined. A courageous patient, who is co-operating intelligently, will seldom have to be exorcised more than three times provided material conditions are favourable. I have seen cases cleared by a single exorcism, and remaining well indefinitely so long as the patient obeyed instructions and had nothing whatever to do with the Unseen, neither reading books upon occultism nor associating with people who were interested in such subjects; and I have also seen the Abyss re-establish its influence when the patient disobeyed instructions and re-awakened the old vibrations. We need to realise that the human consciousness is not a closed vessel, but like the body, has a continual intake and output. The cosmic forces are circulating through it all the time, like sea-water through a living sponge. Whatever emotional state may arise within us is reinforced from outside. The subjective self only has the kindling, the Cosmos supplies the fuel. Once the fire is started, the cosmic forces of the appropriate type will stoke it. Just as the devout Catholic is inspired by the influences of his patron saint, invoked by prayer, so the neurotic is hag-ridden by his obsessive demon, invoked by the morbid broodings of the dissociated subconsciousness. The occultist maintains that the generalised principle of evil has its intelligent channels, just as the organised Principle of Good has Its ministering spirits. Any observer who considers the phenomena of mental disturbance will find much to support this hypothesis. The question of obsession is an exceedingly important one. The word is used very freely in occult circles, and is held to mean the withdrawal of a soul from its body and its replacement by another soul, but I doubt whether this is a true representation of what happens. It has always appeared to me that in obsession we have not got the actual replacement of one soul by another, but the complete domination of one soul by another. It is a hypnotic domination, and we can explain it in terms of the known psychology of hypnosis, the hypnotist in the case being an astral entity. There is an operation in magic known as “assuming the god-form,” in which the operator identifies himself in imagination with the god and so becomes a channel for its power. It is one of the special modes of Egyptian magic wherein the priest always wore a mask to represent the animal head symbolically attributed to the god he represented. This imaginative identification is a method well known in occultism and is often employed in order to enter into the inner life of a plant or a crystal as a mental exercise. The effects of it are very marked and very peculiar. I am inclined to think that it is this method, combined with hypnosis, which is used by the obsessing entity, which first identifies itself with its victim and then superimposes its own personality upon his, thus obtaining a vehicle of manifestation. I am also of the opinion, however, that it is only in certain abnormal states, whether induced by disease of mind or body, or by some of the more drastic operations of black magic, that this imposition can take place.