Spirit possession, danger to the living?

Some very interesting sources of information on spirit possession, something I think we need to be aware of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fccoaKbRU2A             An excellent 10-minute youtube video presentation

https://whitecrowbooks.com/michaeltymn/e...ce_humans/      A very informative short essay by Michael Tymn, and reader comments.

Tymn discusses information documented in several books, in particular by medical investigators Dr. Carl Wickland, a psychiatrist in the 1920s and 1930s, and by Dr. Edith Fiore. They discovered that most of the attaching or influencing spirits were simply unaware they were dead, and the therapists were able to amass a good clinical record with many patients.

(Also there was) a 1931 book, Let Us In, by Jane Revere Burke, a seemingly credible automatic-writing medium who sets forth a record of communications believed to have come from William James, the famous pioneer of modern psychology. “Immense crowds of spirits of all grades of development from the vicious to the most exalted surround every one of you,” James communicated on April 28, 1931. “For the great mass of men this is a fact which they never think about even once in a lifetime, yet not any single one of you is exempt from the constant influence of your unseen friends and foes.”

On June 18, 1931, James communicated that there is an enormous increase in insanity among those still in the body because they don’t know how to protect themselves from possession by lowly spirits. “In ninety-nine cases out of every hundred it is direct suggestion from some discarnate being,” he explained. “The people must be taught to recognize it and deal with it. It is as simple as shutting off your radio. Learn that it is not a suggestion of the Devil but a direct voice of another human being – albeit dead, as you call it. Shut them off! Deny them! Order them off the premises at once! Even in cases when the suggestion made is not evil, you must be strong, clear and definite to hold control of the citadel of your own mind.”

If the increase in insanity was “enormous” in 1931, it must be gargantuan today.

Comment: of course there is the conventional medical opinion that these phenomena are explainable by conventional psychiatric means, but I don't think this is sufficient to explain the consistent successes especially of Wickland and his medium wife in treating many patients.

Information like this seems to suggest that the transition to the next life is far from automatic and that what occurs may be almost random - at least until a soul sorts him/herself out.

This is rather disturbing!

Wickland's work was one of my key nails in the Super Psi coffin. The convoluted idea of subpersonalities, even if true, seems better explained by spirits which in turn supports the existence of an afterlife.

Admittedly I'm a believer in what's apparently called the "Volitional Theory of Causation" - that all causal relations are due to the influence of minds. The question is the nature of these minds...

This is also one of those areas where I think a both/and belief system, perhaps better thought of as Wilson's Reality Tunnels, may be of help. Simply assuming any error or flaw is due to spirits is probably overreaching and in some an attempt at evading responsibility, but this assumption can aid one in dealing with life if a practice is integrated properly.

For example I've heard the Irish would say "A sadness has come upon me" rather than "I am sad". Similarly thinking of depression as an external entity may help one push against it. When one is tempted toward the immoral, rejecting this as a negative external influence rather than a part of one's self may prevent one from a regrettable action like committing adultery against a loving spouse.

Eric Weiss, who asserts in the Doctrine of Subtle Worlds that this world is an intersection of varied spirit realities, advises people to develop a vigilance toward spirits that may want to use and influence you. I think one can do this while not fully believing the Doctrine or even in spirits, with this disbelief itself a guard against paranoia/depression that we are just perpetual victims in the Gnostic sense.

Information like this seems to suggest that the transition to the next life is far from automatic and that what occurs may be almost random - at least until a soul sorts him/herself out.
This is rather disturbing!

Thankfully we have cases of people choosing reincarnation and/or choosing to return from the place they went to while having an NDE. I do actually think the transition between lives is more a natural phenomena or might as well be if the design is hidden from us*...but it seems that there are benevolent entities as well as the soul's own power that can allow some control...

* Buddha even compares the transmigration of souls as a stick thrown in the mud that can land unpredictably.