Obsession, also known as spirit obsession, is a technical term within the Spiritist belief and practice defined by the author Allan Kardec as the interference of a subjugating spirit with a weaker spirit (cf. Latin obsidere, "besiege"). Although the term most commonly refers to the negative influence of the spirit of an evil deceased person on the mind or spirit of a living person, obsession can occur in either direction. Obsession is believed by many Spiritists to be a major danger to unprepared and untrained mediums. It is also believed to be one of the most frequent causes of mental illness and criminal behaviour. Because the danger of obsession is a core belief within Spiritism, dealing with it is one of the cornerstones of Spiritist religious activity, and it is treated at Spiritist centres by means of prayer and teaching. Its centrality to Spiritist doctrine and practice is one of the marks that generally distinguishes Spiritism from both Spiritualism and the Spiritual Church Movement. However, the 19th century Spiritualist author Paschal Beverly Randolph also recognized the dangers of obsession to mediums, and claimed to have been harmed by evil spirits during his own career as a Spiritualist lecturer and trance medium.

Types

Technically, "obsession" is any unwanted influence of a spirit, when it alters or suppresses the normal manifestation of the personality of the subject. It can occur when: In the first case the victim suffers but does not know where the suffering comes from. The obsessed may be led to behave abnormally without apparent reason and will not be able to explain their deeds or crimes. In the second case the victim knows they are being influenced and usually reacts, but is unable to resist the will of the obsessor. The victim may resort to violence. The third case mostly occurs when the spirit of a deceased person is not able to break their bonds with the living and hangs around, suffering as the living suffers. The fourth case is mostly like the second but occurs in the spirit world.

Degrees of obsession

Kardec proposed a classification of obsessions into three levels (of severity):

Causes of obsession

Obsession has the same kinds of motivation found among criminals who commit earthly crimes, namely (envy, revenge, prejudice, and sadism). Additionally, there are motivations specific to spirits.

Mediumship and obsession

The entire 13th chapter of The Book on Mediums is dedicated to the subject of spirit obsession, mostly with the intention of warning new mediums of the dangers and responsibilities involved. According to Spiritist belief, we are all born with the gift of mediumship, but only a minority of mankind retains this ability into adulthood, and anyone who suffers from obsession has developed his mediumship to some extent. However, most people who are mediums are not aware of their condition and do not know how to deal with it.

Prevention and treatment

Not all mental perturbations have spiritual origins. It is necessary to rule out psychological or psychiatric causes prior to any spiritual treatment. For instance, "to hear voices" may be a case of obsession, but is usually a simple case of psychosis. Prevention of obsession is achieved by means of three precautions: The treatment for obsession is termed disobsession in Kardecist Spiritism. The cure is a lengthy process that involves all of the above treatments, but also: In overall, the solution to problem of obsession is threefold:

Purpose

Although obsession is usually understood as an undesirable "side effect" of practicing spiritism, some proponents accept that some cases are intended to be "show cases" to attract the public interest towards spiritism. The victims in such cases may be either people who chose to suffer obsession to purge their guilt for being obsessors in previous incarnations or people who accepted to suffer for altruism, so that more people could find evidence of the existence of spirits.