Edith Fiore is an American psychologist who accepted the concepts of soul survival and reincarnation, and applied them in her psychotherapeutic practice. She published, in 1987, Spiritual Possession, reporting much of her experience, gained over several years, having seen more than five hundred patients.

Edith used the term possession to refer to the pernicious influences of disembodied beings on individuals. Spiritists prefer the expression obsession, as possession gives the mistaken idea that the Spirit takes possession of the victim's body. What actually occurs is an influence on the mental field. The personality involved starts to assimilate the thoughts and feelings of the disincarnate, resulting from this fact, a varied symptomatology.

Fiore graduated in psychology in the University of Miami in 1969 and began her psychotherapeutic activity using the technique of hypnosis. Through hypnosis, she achieved greater relaxation for the patient, helping him to understand the dynamics of his mental disorders. She considered hypnosis one of the quickest ways to reach the subconscious mind, the repository of all memories.

Something strange occasionally happened to some of her patients. Induced into relaxation, they behaved in a strange way, as if another personality was manifesting itself through them. Talking with this supposed personality, she verified that they were disembodied beings who had been accompanying her patient, sometimes, for many years, and that the disturbing symptoms were related to that influence. Moreover, the most important. By dialoguing with the supposed “soul of the other world” and clarifying her condition, convincing it to accompany the “beings of light”, the patients improved markedly. Many patients complained of having someone inside them. Edith thought they were reluctant mediums. When the spirits were willing to review their behavior, she would invoke close spiritual friends of the victim or disembodied relatives to help them.

According to her, entities that had not made successful transitions to the afterlife caused problems, affecting people in harmful and destructive ways through possession. The help given to the obsessing spirits to leave resulted in the elimination of their devastating effects, often dramatically changing entire lives.

She was deeply surprised that since I became aware of this phenomenon, I discovered that at least seventy percent of my patients were possessed and that this situation caused them the disease. She showed that most cases had straightforward and uncomplicated solutions – some patients improved with just one session – but some cases required a long series of psychotherapeutic interventions. A few could not shake off the spiritual influence. The psychologist realized that the most difficult cases were those in which a connection between the Spirit and the incarnate who referred to a past existence was noticed. This connection was due to hatred or passionate affective fixations. In some cases, the patient felt so connected to the disembodied entity, which attracted him, not allowing him to be guided by friendly spirits to conditions appropriate to his spiritual situation.

Fiore believed that most patients in mental institutions present their symptoms because of obsessive influence. She says that the voices they hear are real; some of your visual hallucinations are glimpses of the lower astral plane. About schizophrenia, she said that it does not seem to me that all schizophrenics are psychotic because of possession. I have the impression that they – in addition to their mental illness – are undoubtedly possessed. Possession is an additional burden for them to carry.

Edith saw the possessing entities as the real patients. She stated that they suffer intensely, perhaps even without understanding it. Virtual prisoners are trapped on the Earth plane and feel exactly as they did moments before their death, which may have occurred decades ago. As a result, she tried to treat them with great affection. She said that my therapeutic goal is to help possessing spirits, who are in the midst of the greatest suffering, even though this means for the patients the need to remain burdened for a while longer, while the possessors' willingness to leave is cultivated. If I were able to “shoo them away,” I would be creating a monstrous problem, because they would revert to being displaced people and perhaps cling to other unsuspecting people.

The author of Spirit Possession listed several reasons that, in her experience, caused certain entities to remain attached to the material plane, instead of completing the transition to the spiritual world. The most common are, she says, ignorance, confusion and fear, excessive attachments to people or places, or addictions to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food or sex.

An unreasonable sense of unfinished business also often compels Spirits to stay in the physical world. Interestingly, this can cause the victim to feel an inexplicable compulsion to do things in which, until then, they have expressed no interest.

Some are determined to get revenge and cling odiously to those who have wronged them.

Communicating with the Spirits, through his patients, she learned that some people were so convinced, during their existence, that there was nothing after death that they simply refused to see family members or spiritual guides who came to look for them. Instead, they wandered aimlessly in a state of confusion and ignorance that often lasted for years. Some people were in such a deep state of confusion when they died that they simply did not realize they were dead. This was particularly true regarding suicides.

Regarding suicide, she commented: Regardless of anything else, it seems that by committing suicide, they are only postponing the use of their lessons and delaying their spiritual progress, as they will have to find themselves in yet another test situation, in which suicide will be a serious option in some future existence.

Excessive attachment to the living was a strong compelling reason for some entities to remain earthbound. Parents stayed to “help” their children as they grew up; marital partners remained, because of an affectionate interest in their respective spouses, or out of jealousy. However, no matter how well intentioned the reasons, the attachment of spirits always caused serious problems: overprotective parents delayed the development of their children, because they instilled in them their fears; the loving spouses were very upset when the spouses remarried, and they often proceeded to deliberately destroy remarriages.

In one case, the Spirit of a young man came close to the younger brother who idolized him in order to "help" him. Because the entity had been addicted to marijuana, the living brother ended up using the drug – and, soon after, started using other drugs as well.

According to Edith Fiore, one of the strongest ties that bind spirits to the physical world is their propensity for alcohol, drugs, sex and food. If a person were to die while in the grip of such a tendency, the most irresistible need felt immediately after death was for the substance or sensation object of the inclination. The Spirit, blind to its own departure, only sought to satisfy its compulsion. Spiritual addicts, she said, used to crowd around living addicts and the places they frequented, trying to re-experience what had once been the dominant theme of their lives.

Edith examined in detail the various clinical manifestations of obsessional influences. She believed that the influence depended on some factors such as the intrinsic strength of the individual compared to that of the obsessing Spirit and the conditions that weaken the obsessed, such as stress, drug or alcohol use and physical illness.

Also very important, according to her, is the mental attitude and the control of emotions, which when unbalanced generate vulnerability that sets the stage for possession. She believed that most of her patients were uncontrolled mediums, and that her therapeutic role in relation to such people led to an interruption of mediumship and an aid to the person to become firmer, centered and balanced.

The author listed, in her work, several signs that may be related to obsessive influence, such as:

1- Voice(s) that speak to the individual

2- Low energy level, with a permanent feeling of physical or mental fatigue

3- Abuse of drugs, including alcohol

4- Impulsive behavior, leading the individual to do things without thinking, and often regretting what he did.

5- Memory problems.

6- Weak concentration

7- Sudden onset of anxiety and depression

8- Sudden onset of physical problems with no obvious cause, such as headaches, body aches, bloating, insomnia, weight gain, allergies, intense hot flashes

9- Emotional and/or physical reactions to uplifting readings

10- Decreased sex drive

11- Tension and estrangement between marriage partners or relatives

12- Blurred vision, pain of all kinds and general tiredness (especially when the influencing Spirit had died at an old age).

13- Various phobias, sometimes related to the circumstances of the obsessor's death experience.

14- Personality changes, leading patients to think: This is not me!

In the process of spiritual liberation of those involved, Edith made use of fraternal and affectionate dialogue with the disincarnate, and guided her patients regarding the need to take care of themselves physically and emotionally. She recommended that they record uplifting and enlightening messages and listen to these messages one or more times a day. This helped the patients to maintain a high mental attitude and affected their spiritual companions too. Patients should dialogue with the Spirits in a loving way, motivating them to assume their condition as Spirits, trusting the spiritual benefactors, who should guide them. Patients were supposed to pray and apply a kind of mental visualization, which she called the white light technique:

Using your creative imagination, imagine that you have a miniature sun, exactly like the sun in our solar system, buried deep in the solar plexus. This sun radiates through every atom and cell of your being. It fills you with light from your fingertips to the crown of your head and the soles of your feet. It shines through and beyond you at an arm's length in all directions - above your head, below your feet, out to your sides, creating an aura - a bright, dazzling, radiant White Light that surrounds and protects you completely against any negativity or harm.

Finally, she asked patients to arrange a group of friends and to meet with that group. They should pray, visualize the white light, and lay their hands on the patient, but without touching him.