What is obsession

Allan Kardec offers us a perfect definition in chapter 28, item 81, of The Gospel According to Spiritism, when he informs that "obsession is the persistent action of a bad Spirit on a person". It is, therefore, a true persecution of a disincarnate over an incarnate, and we can understand this process, as Kardec explains in that same text, because “evil spirits swarm around the Earth, as a result of the moral inferiority of its inhabitants. Its evil action is part of the scourges that humanity endures in this world. Obsession, like disease, and like all the tribulations of life, must be considered, therefore, as a trial or an atonement, and accepted in this condition”.

In The Book of Mediums, in chapter 23, Kardec informs that obsession is the “domain that some spirits can acquire over certain people”. Following the text, the Encoder clarifies that “it is always the inferior spirits that seek to dominate, because the good ones do not exercise any constraint. The good advice, they fight the influence of the bad, and if they do not listen, they prefer to withdraw. The bad guys, on the contrary, cling to those who they manage to arrest. If they come to dominate someone, they identify themselves with the victim's spirit and lead them as they do with a child”.

In the book Genesis, chapter 14, item 45, we find one more definition given by Kardec, and which confirms what we wrote above: “Obsession is the persistent action that a bad Spirit has on an individual. It has very different characters, from the simple moral influence without sensitive external signs, to the complete disturbance of the organism and mental faculties. It eliminates all mediumistic faculties”.

Let us briefly look at the characteristics of each degree:

Degrees of obsession

In The Book of Mediums, Allan Kardec presents three main degrees of obsession: simple obsession, fascination and subjugation. Continuing his publications, first in the Revista Espirita and later in A Genesis, he presents a fourth degree: possession.

Simple Obsession - "it occurs when a bad spirit imposes itself on a medium, intrudes itself against its will in the communications it receives, prevents it from communicating with other Spirits and replaces those that are evoked" (The Book of Mediums), chapter 23, item 238.).

Fascination - "it is an illusion created directly by the Spirit in the medium's thought and that paralyzes in a way his ability to judge communications" (The Book of Mediums, chapter 23, item 239.).

Subjugation - “it is an involvement that paralyzes the victim's will, causing him to act in spite of himself. The medium is under a real yoke. The subjugation can be moral or corporeal. In the first case, the subjugated is led to make decisions that are often absurd and compromising which, for a kind of illusion, he considers sensible. In the second case, the Spirit acts on the material organs, causing involuntary movements” (The Book of Mediums, chapter 23, item 240).

Possession - “the free Spirit replaces, so to speak, the incarnate Spirit; he takes up residence in his body, without, however, leaving it permanently, which can only take place in death. Possession is thus always temporary and intermittent, since a disincarnated spirit cannot definitively take the place of an incarnate” (Genesis, chapter 14, item 47).

Recognizing the obsession

The obsessive process has distinct characteristics that can be recognized by close observation. With reference to mediums, Kardec lists nine characteristics, as we read in The Book of Mediums, chapter 23, item 243:

1) Insistence of a Spirit in communicating whether the medium wants it or not.

2) Illusion that - despite the medium's intelligence - prevents him from recognizing the falsity and ridicule of the communications received.

3) Belief in the infallibility and in the absolute identity of the Spirits that communicate.

4) Acceptance of the praise given by the Spirits.

5) Willingness to walk away from people who can enlighten you.

6) Take the criticism of the communications you receive badly.

7) Continuous and untimely need to write.

8) Any form of physical embarrassment, dominating your will.

9) Fluids and continuous disorders around him.

Regarding people in general, Andre Luiz, in the book Estude e Viva (Study and Live), chapter 35, a psychographics of the mediums Chico Xavier and Waldo Vieira, in the message under the title Subtle Spiritual Influences, also lists nine characteristics to recognize the obsession:

1) Difficulty in concentrating ideas on optimistic reasons.

2) Absence of an intimate environment to elevate feelings.

3) Unexplainable indisposition, sadness for no apparent reason and foreboding of immediate disaster.

4) Annoyances not manifested due to not finding similar-minded or issues about on whom or on what to unload them.

5) Surreptitious pessimisms, dull irritations, complaints, exaggerations of sensitivity and aptitude to condemn those who are not to blame.

6) Forced interpretation of facts and attitudes of you or others.

7) Hyper emotiveness or depression bordering on tears.

8) Anxiety to invest in the role of victim or to take an absurd position of self-righteousness.

9) Stubbornness in not accepting, for yourself, that there is spiritual influence with you.

Causes of obsession

Obsession’s causes and reasons are varied. In the study presented in chapter 23 of The Book of Mediums, we find in item 245 the following explanations by Kardec: “The reasons for obsession vary according to the character of the Spirit. Sometimes it is the practice of revenge against the person who has hurt you in your life or in a previous existence. Often it is only the desire to do evil, because, as he suffers, he wishes to make others suffer, feeling a kind of pleasure in tormenting and humiliating them. (…) These Spirits sometimes act out of the hatred that arouses their envy of good, and that is why they cast their evil on honest creatures. (…) Others are driven by simple cowardice, taking advantage of the moral weakness of certain people, who know they are incapable of offering them resistance”.

In item 246 of the same book, Kardec points out another reason: “There are obsessive spirits without malice, who are even good, but dominated by the pride of false knowledge: they have their ideas, their systems on the sciences, the social economy, morality, religion, philosophy. They want to impose their opinion and for that they seek mediums who are credulous enough to accept them with their eyes closed, fascinating them to prevent any discernment of what is true and what is false”.

In The Gospel According to Spiritism, chapter 28, item 81, Kardec is adamant: “Obsession is almost always the vengeful action of a Spirit, and most of the time it has its origin in the relationships of the obsessed with the obsessor, in a previous life”.

This same explanation can be found in Genesis, chapter 14, item 46: "Obsession is almost always the fact of a vengeance exercised by a Spirit, and which most often has its origin in the relationships that the obsessed had with him in a previous existence".

Action of the obsessive Spirit

How does the Spirit exercise its influence over the incarnate? How can you dominate and subdue him? In item 81 of chapter 28 of The Gospel According to Spiritism, Kardec explains: “In cases of serious obsession, the obsessed is as involved and impregnated with a harmful fluid, which neutralizes the action of healthy fluids and repels them”.

In Genesis, chapter 14, item 47, we have: “In obsession, the Spirit acts externally through its perispirit, which he identifies with that of the incarnate; the latter is then entwined as if in a web and constrained to act against his will”.

Regarding the fluids, the perispirit and the mind, we understand the words of the spiritual benefactor Bezerra de Menezes, recorded by Yvonne Pereira in his book Memories of Mediumship, chapter 10: “The perispirit, my friends, is a living body, not liable just to get sick if the mind is sick, but also to reflect deplorable or sublime awareness states, and very serious awareness states can cause mental illnesses in an incarnate being, and we agree that this state is even reflected in the physiognomic aspect of the individual. All of these cases, influencing the nervous system, will often affect the brain, since the former is the natural vehicle of the perispirit, in the state of incarnation. Hence the fact that the glandular systems of the human brain system are affected. Attacks, seizures, epilepsy, hypochondria, neurasthenia and depressions have spiritual origins and are often cases also based on obsession, obsessive hypnotic suggestion (hypnotic suggestion is nothing more than temporary obsession, when it is not positive), etc. Psychic treatment in such cases will be of great value, although it does not excuse the physical treatment. Addicting the mind with inferior thoughts of any kind, a person will be subjugated to total imbalance and, possibly, causing obsessive harassment of suchlike disincarnated. These are obsessed by themselves or by others, because they want it. (...) Let us not lose sight of the fact that the human body is only a delicate device, whose batteries and life-conducting systems are directed by the forces of the perispirit, and this, in turn, will be commanded by the will, that is, the conscience, the mind".

Treatment of obsession

It is possible to get rid of an obsession, for that we follow the recommendations of Allan Kardec, who studied a lot, observed cases and talked with the Spirits to obtain the necessary information.

Let us see, what he recommends in the aforementioned chapter and item in The Gospel According to Spiritism: “By an action similar to that of the healing medium in cases of illness, it is necessary to expel the bad fluid with the help of a better fluid, which in a way, causes the effect of a reagent. This is what we can call a mechanical action, but it is not enough. It is also necessary, and above all, to act on the intelligent being, with whom one must speak with authority, and that authority is only given by moral superiority. The greater this is, the greater the authority”.

Kardec continues: “And that is not all, because to ensure liberation, it is necessary to convince the evil spirit to renounce its evil intentions, awaken its repentance and desire for good, through skillfully directed instructions, with the help of particular evocations, made in the interest of his moral education. So you can have the double satisfaction of freeing an incarnate and converting an imperfect Spirit”.

Concluding his observations, Kardec introduces another important element for the treatment of obsession: “The task becomes easier, when the obsessed, understanding his situation, offers his will and his prayers. … In all cases of obsession, prayer is the most powerful helper of action against the obsessing Spirit”.

In chapter 14 of Genesis, item 46, Kardec states: “To guarantee yourself against obsession, it will be necessary to fortify the soul; this results, for the obsessed, the need to work for his own improvement, which is usually enough, in most cases, to get rid of the obsessor, without the help of strangers. Such help becomes necessary when obsession degenerates into subjugation and possession, because then the patient sometimes loses his will and his free will”.

A little more about obsession

We recommend, in addition to the works of Allan Kardec and other works mentioned in this text, a careful reading of other Spiritist books: Liberacao (Liberation), by the Spirit Andre Luiz, through the psychographics of the medium Chico Xavier; and the book Nas Fronteiras da Loucura (On the  Borders of Madness), by the Spirit Manoel Philomeno de Miranda, through a psychographics by Divaldo Franco, in addition to the works Obsession and Cure of Obsession, by Suely Caldas Schubert, and Dialogue with the Shadow, by Herminio Correa de Miranda.

Bibliography / References:

EMMANUEL / LUIZ, Andre. XAVIER, C./VIEIRA, W. Study and Live. Rio de Janeiro: Feb, 1972.

KARDEC, Allan. The Book of Mediums, Sao Paulo: Lake, 2014.

KARDEC, Allan. The Gospel according to Spiritism, Sao Paulo: Feesp, 2012.

KARDEC, Allan. Genesis, A. Sao Paulo: Lake, 1985.

PEREIRA, Yvonne do Amaral. Memories of Mediumship. Rio de Janeiro: Feb, 1968.

Marcus De Mario is from Rio de Janeiro, where he collaborates with the Spiritist Group Seara de Luz, being the creator and director of Ibem Educa. He is a writer, educator and speaker.