15. Physical Aspect Of Psychic Attack And Defence-a
WE have distinguished the various types of psychic attack, we have described the methods that can be employed in carrying them out, and we have also noted the various forms of delusion, fraud and auto-suggestion that may complicate the issue.
We are now in a position to discuss the question of diagnosis.
Let us consider the whole matter from the practical point of view.
Supposing a stranger comes with a story of a psychic attack, what should be our procedure?
We must first of all bear in mind that there is great need of caution in presuming that a psychic attack is being made.
Psychic attacks are comparatively rare things.
We must not assume we are dealing with one until we have excluded all the other things it can possibly be.
Not so long ago I came across a case of alleged obsession which turned out to be neglected constipation, and which was effectually exorcised with castor oil.
If there are any physical symptoms at all, even if they are no more than a bad colour or a bad breath, a diagnosis ought to be made by a qualified medical practitioner, for even if the trouble have a predominating psychic element, its origin may be physical.
Septic foci are really centres of decomposition, and as such they open the door to low forms of elemental life whose function is to assist in the return of dust to dust.
Impurities in the blood-stream may poison the brain.
New growths or abscesses may derange its functions.
These things can only be recognised by the man who understands the body; other things being equal, the trained man is the better man, and the man with the best training is the best man, and the only place where an adequate training in diagnosis can be obtained is a general hospital.
Moreover, should things turn out badly, the only person who can pull the chestnuts out of the fire is the person whose signature the authorities will accept on a certificate.
Supposing the patient turns out to be a lunatic, what is the unqualified practitioner going to do with him?
A very large proportion of the cases of alleged psychic attack turn out to be lunatics and hysterics.
Incipient lunacy is a very hard thing to detect; hysteria is very cunning and plausible; a doctor who is handling human nature in bulk every day of his life will detect either of these two conditions much quicker than the layman who has never met them before.
It may be objected that it is a very difficult thing to find a doctor who will have a sympathetic attitude towards occultism.
To argue thus is to misunderstand the position.
The doctor is not being asked to co-operate with any occult operation, but to examine for physical disease, and if he finds it, to treat it.
He is no more concerned in the occult measures that are taken for the benefit of his patient than he is in the church his patient attends.
If the doctor finds no evidence of organic disease, or some complaint such as varicose veins which can obviously have no bearing on the mental condition, the case may be held to have passed the first test, and we may feel that it is worth while to proceed to the psychic investigation.
If the case is a bad one, or the trouble is of long standing, the doctor will probably find that the patient is debilitated, even if there is nothing definitely amiss, and will proceed to treat the condition accordingly.
This is all to the good, for the better the physical condition of the patient the more mental control and stamina he will have.
Sleeping-draughts, however, should be avoided if possible, and if they have to be administered, then the patient should be watched while he sleeps by someone who knows how to keep an occult guard, and the room in which he sleeps should be purified and sealed.
The state of a person being controlled or inhabited by an external spirit or entity — the entity as subject acting through the person's body, rather than merely troubling them from without. Distinct from haunting (a discarnate soul or place-bound presence that interferes without necessarily entering and controlling a living body) and from spirit_conjuration (an operator deliberately commanding a spirit's appearance, the reverse relation — here the spirit is uninvited and in control, not summoned and subordinated).
The text mentions 'alleged obsession' as a case that turned out to be physical, indicating possession/obsession is a category of concern being ruled out.
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 passage is explicitly about the diagnosis and procedural handling of alleged psychic attacks, distinguishing them from physical or mental illness.
The maintenance of a state of cleanliness—physical, moral, or spiritual—required for encounter with the divine.
The passage advises that if sleeping draughts are used, the room should be 'purified and sealed,' indicating a practice of maintaining spiritual cleanliness for protection.