How is the perispirit formed? Moreover, how does the perispirit act in relation to the physical body?

“... Spirits are coated with a vaporous envelope, which forms a true fluidic body, which we call “perispirit”, and its elements are taken from the universal or cosmic fluid, the principle of all things. When the Spirit joins a body, it lives there with its perispirit, which serves as a link between the Spirit itself and corporeal matter: it is the intermediary of the sensations perceived by the Spirit. However, this perispirit is not confined to the body, as in a box. Due to its fluidic nature, it externally radiates the steam that is released from it. Nevertheless, the vapor given off by an unhealthy body is equally unhealthy, acrid and nauseating, which infects the air where many unhealthy people congregate. Just as this vapor is impregnated with the qualities of the body, the perispirit is impregnated with the qualities, i.e., the thought of the Spirit and radiates such qualities around the body” (my emphasis).

Allan Kardec responds to a very interesting objection that was presented to the spiritist theory, in 1862, regarding the state of the soul. Interestingly, nowadays, some have made a similar objection to the work of Andre Luiz. Let us see the Encoder’s explanation of the apparent “materialization of the spiritual world”:

Does Spiritism materialize the soul and the spiritual world?

“They accuse him of materializing the soul, whereas, according to religion, the soul is purely immaterial. Like most others, this objection springs from incomplete and superficial study. Spiritism never defined the nature of the soul, which escapes our investigations. It does not say that the perispirit constitutes the soul: the word “perispirit” positively says the opposite, as it specifies an envelope around the Spirit. What about The Book of Spirits? “There are three things in man: the “soul” or Spirit, an intelligent principle; the “body”, material envelope; the “perispirit”, semi-material fluidic envelope, serving as a link between the Spirit and the body”. Moreover, because, with the death of the body, the soul preserves the fluidic envelope, it does not say that this envelope and the soul are one and the same thing, since the body is not one with the clothes or the soul does not unite with the body. The Spiritist Doctrine takes nothing away from the immateriality of the soul: it only gives it two coverings, instead of one, during the corporeal life and only one after the death of the body, which is, not a hypothesis, but a result of observation. And it is with the help of this envelope that its individuality is better understood and its action on matter is better explained” (emphasis added).

How does the perispirit transmit the Spirit's thought?

“Due to its fluidic nature, essentially mobile and elastic, so to speak, as a direct agent of the Spirit, the perispirit is put into action and projects rays by the will of the Spirit. By these rays it serves the transmission of thought, because in a certain way it is animated by the thought of the Spirit. Since the perispirit is the bond that unites the Spirit to the body, it is through it that the Spirit transmits to the organs, not the vegetative life, but the movements that express its will; and through him that the sensations of the body are transmitted to the Spirit. Once the solid body is destroyed by death, the spirit no longer acts and perceives only through its fluidic body, or perispirit. That is why it acts more easily and perceives better, since the body is an obstacle. All this is still the result of observation.” (emphasis mine)

How does the meeting between two people who are nice happen, perispiritually? In addition, between two people who are unfriendly?

“... Let us now suppose two people nearby, each one involved by his “perispiritual” atmosphere. Let the neologism pass. These two fluids come into contact and penetrate each other. If they are of a sympathetic nature, they interpenetrate; if of an unsympathetic nature, they repel each other and the individuals will feel a kind of malaise, without realizing it; if, on the contrary, they are moved by feelings of benevolence, they will have a benevolent thought, which attracts. That is why two people understand each other and guess each other without speaking. Sometimes, a certain something says that the person we are facing is animated by this or that feeling. Well, this certain something is the expansion of the perispiritual fluid of the person in contact with us, a kind of electrical wire that conducts thought...". (emphasis mine)

Can the disembodied Spirit influence the incarnated Spirit by projecting fluids onto it, like someone who throws a liquid or any product at someone?

“The perispiritual fluid of the incarnated person is activated by the Spirit. If, by his will, the Spirit, so to speak, throws rays at another individual, the rays penetrate him. Hence the more or less powerful magnetic action, depending on the will, more or less beneficial, depending on whether the rays are of a better or worse nature, more or less vivifying. Because they can, by their action, penetrate the organs and, in certain cases, restore the normal state. The importance of the influence of the magnetizer's moral qualities is known.

What an incarnated Spirit can do, by pouring its own fluid over a person, can also be done by a disincarnated one, as long as it has the same fluid. In this way he can magnetize and, being good or bad, his action will be beneficial or harmful”. (emphasis mine)

Can the good or bad environment, from a spiritual point of view, influence the individual? How does this happen?

“...we easily realize the nature of the impressions we receive, according to the environment where we find ourselves. If a meeting is composed of people of bad feelings, they fill the ambient air with the fluid impregnated with their thoughts. Hence, for good souls, a moral malaise analogous to the physical malaise caused by mephitic exhalations: “the soul is asphyxiated”. If, on the contrary, people have pure intentions, we find in their atmosphere a kind of vivifying and wholesome air. Naturally, the effect will be the same in an environment full of spirits, whether they are good or bad. This well understood we arrive without difficulty at the material action of errant spirits on incarnates. And from there, to the explanation of mediumship”. (emphasis mine)

How is the influence of a disembodied Spirit on an incarnated Spirit?

“If a Spirit wants to act on a person, he approaches him, wraps him with his perispirit, like a mantle; the fluids penetrate each other, the two thoughts and the two wills come together and, then, the Spirit can use that body as if it were his own, makes it act at will, speak, write, draw, etc. So are mediums. If the Spirit is good, his action will be smooth and beneficial and he will only do good things; if he is bad, he will do bad things; if he is perverse and bad, he constrains him, until he paralyzes will and reason, which he smothers with his fluids, as a fire is extinguished under a sheet of water. It makes him think, speak, and act for him; it drives him against his will to extravagant acts and the individual becomes a blind instrument of his will. Such is the cause of obsession, fascination and subjugation, which show themselves in different degrees of intensity”. (emphasis mine)

Allan Kardec, until that moment, did not use the expression “possession”, due to its “demonic” connotation, at least for a large part of the population at the time, and because this expression would convey an idea, in principle mistaken, that the Spirit obsessor would be a “possessor”, that is, a “total owner”, of the obsessed Spirit. However, Kardec starts to use the expression to characterize a very advanced degree of subjugation, in which the harassing Spirit has a high control over the body of the obsessed, with many organic repercussions, characterizing the so-called "physical obsession", which often causes a certain “transfiguration” of the possessed. Such a state tends to generate several consequences, especially when such a state is maintained for too long. It is worth checking, therefore, what is possession for Allan Kardec. The Encoder explains this in the following snippet:

“...The paroxysm of subjugation is generally called “possession”. It should be noted that, in this state, the individual is often aware of the ridiculousness of what he is doing, but is constrained to do it, as if a man more vigorous than he were doing, against his will, moving his arms, legs , the tongue". (emphasis mine)

Do the obsessing spirits start to act on the incarnated spirits due to the evocations that the incarnates may address to them?

“Do you believe that the bad spirits, which swarm in the human environment, wait to be called, in order to exert their pernicious influence? Since spirits have existed in all times, they have played the same role in all times, as this is in their nature. And the proof is the large number of people obsessed, or possessed, if you like, before Spiritism and mediums were considered. The action of good or bad spirits is therefore spontaneous. That of the wicked produces a lot of disturbances in the moral and even physical economy and which, through ignorance of the true cause, are attributed to wrong causes. Bad spirits are invisible enemies, all the more dangerous as their action is not suspected. By uncovering them, Spiritism comes to reveal a new cause of certain ills in Humanity. Once the cause is known, one will no longer seek to combat evil by means that, we now know, are useless: other, more effective means will be sought.” (emphasis mine)

(This article continues in the next issue.)

References:

Kardec, A. The Obsession – Origin, symptons and cures [Translated by Wallace Leal V. Rodrigues]. Publisher “O Clarim”. Sixth edition. 2000.

Kardec, A. Spiritist Magazine (Fifth year – 1862) [Salvador Gentile Translated by Salvador Gentile]. Spiritist Diffusion Institute (IDE). First edition.

Kardec, A. Spiritist Magazine (Fifth Year – 1862) [Translation by Salvador Gentile]. Spiritist Diffusion Institute (IDE). First edition. 1993.