OBSESSION AND MEDIUMSHIP
Excerpt from "The All-Seeing Eye" (1927)
Manly Palmer Hall
When an individual permits his power of choice to be taken from him either by a physical living person or an abstract invisible power and permits this power to dominate his individuality, then that person is said to be obsessed. There are three general terms of obsession, namely, self-obsession, obsession of an idea, notiori or tenant and obsession by another intelligent.entity, person or elemental creation. In the first two instances, the obsessing thing is either created or enlarged upon by the mind of the person himself. In the third case it is a completely individual and intelligent creature who takes hold and dominates the life as for example in hypnotism.
When the obsession is the result of an outside entity having a personality capable of exercising influence over another weaker personality! their are three general subdivisions, three different possible sources of the obsession. The first is, obsession by a deearnate intelligence, more simply the obsession of a living person by one who has passed out of this existence. The possible motives for this are various. It may be a desire to function for a short time in the physical world for the purpose of completing a work cut short by unexpected death; a desire for revenge; a desire to control another person for the attainment of selfish ends; the desire of a pare-nt to communicate with children; or the urge to make right a wrong. All these and many other causes lie behind obsession by a decarnate intelligence.
Under the heading of elemental obsession, we find those who have opened themselves by unwise occult e:xercises to the demon and larvae of the astral world. Emotion excesses often result in demoniacal obsession. In such cases the obsessing entity is of very low order, ge'nerally without any intelligence of any kind and the obsession takes the form of laughing, crying and hysterical outbursts, sometimes even causing epilepsy. As these demons dwell and belong to the emotional plane of nature, they cannot rule an individual if that person uses his own mind as the mental body is superior to the emotions. These creatures may enter only when the individual abdicates in their favor. Consequently the most usual time that these creature's are attracted is when in a burst of passion or anger the person allows his emotions to stampede his reason, or when in a mediumistic circle he has made himself negative and invited outside forces to enter his organism.
Obsession by a living entity is usually accomplished by the power of mind in which a very strong mentality overwhelms a weaker organism and chains it to its service. The exerting of this influence of one over another is black magic, after the individual has reached the age when his own mental organisms are born about the age of 21. After that time people may be reasoned with and influenced with their consent, but to exert power over an individual is to accept all the responsibilities for the actions of that person. It is a crime in nature for one intelligence to overpower another. We people in every walk of life are obsessed by a stronger personality, often unconsciously but no one has the right of depriving another creature of the' power of choice. With these as the general forms of obsessions by entities, we now turn to obsession by ideas.
Many people sacrifice the'ir intelligence to a notion and some viewpoint either original or assumed deprives their mentalityof the power of choice. Many people are obsessed by fear. Many people are obsessed by the belief in black forces. Many otherwise intelligent persons are obsessed and driven nearly to frenzy by a creature who never existed outside of their own fancy which they are pleased to call the devil who is the largest and most important thing which man has ever manufactured from whole cloth. Thousands, yes millions of people are obsessed by a superstition of a hole in the dark. Just as children will not enter a darkened room for fear of the bogie man whom thoughtless nurse girls have used as their power over the child. So man peoples the unknown, the dark parts of his own nature with shades, ghouls and spectres before whom he abjectly bows, failing to realize that they never existed outside of himself, but whose existence is seemingly proven by the respect and veneration of others equally ignorant. The imagination of man is a tremendous power, capable of making his life either one of beauty or else to fill it with endless nightmares, all depending upon his own outlook upon life. Many people are obsessed with a religious concept; others by a dogma, but whereve'r the power of choice is inhibited, a man is not free to dictate the decisions of his own consciousness, that person is dangerously obsessed, by a person.ality, power or attitude that will ultimately destroy him if he does not eliminate it.
Under the heading of self-obsession, we list those people who deprive nature of its privilege of dictating certain automatic functions of the individual. Man is gradually assuming control of himsef, taking out of the hands of natural law and its intelligent forces the rulership of his own being. When he does this in harmony with the law of nature, all is well for nature equips the intelligence to carryon its new duties wisely and wetll. When, however, with force of will man dictates to the infinite and to nature within himself without giving nature's plan an opportunity to be heard, he then obsesses himself, by obsessing body function, mental attitude or natural law in its manifestation. A number of examples of this can be found among the phlegmatic aphorisms, affirmations with which the field of occultism is heavily sowed. To obsess an organism with the idea of prosperity is a form of self-obsession. To affirm that you are well when every bone in the body aches and every muscle rebels is a form of obsessing yourself. It is also and emotional efficiency a system of self hypnotism. It usually works. The crying voice of nature is stilled, but the reason for the cry passes unheeded and when man fails to realize that pain and bodily inharmony is a red lantern hung out to denote trouble ahead, it is the loss of the individual and not nature. To affirm riches in poverty is self hypnosis. To affirm health in sickness is akin to it. To affirm wisdom in ignorance is not to possess it. And what is more this attitude generally precludes the possibility of learning. Attitude and not affirmation is the key to body harmonization. A good attitude and intelligent outlook is far more useful than to affirm a non-existing condition. To recognize the existence of perfection and to strive towards that goal is good. To affirm the presence of that condition and to be' satisfied with present position and outlook is decidedly bad. All things which encourage unfoldment, education and progressiveness build both character and body. Those which offer attainment without dfort are false both to themselves and ' to the plan. For all in nature' expresses the reward of works done and atrophy and decay as the fruitage of stagnation. Having considered these let us now analyze for a moment the undesirable affects of mediumship upon man and the possible diseases, ailments and uncertainties, both mental and physical which can come as a result of this sincere but unwise system of occult culture.
