AN ANNOYING SPIRIT.

 

A medium who was very successful in receiving messages from loved ones, until another came between her and them, controlling her continuously and to her great annoyance. The history of her case will show how this spirit gained possession.

 

There is no labor of body or mind which so rapidly and completely exhausts the vital forces as the practice of mediumship. By continuously using it, in any of its forms, dangerous nervous prostration is sure to follow. In this state of prostration the will is weak and undesirable controls enter the door thus opened wide for their entrance.

 

It is for this reason mediumship should not be made a matter of business. It cannot be without deterioration, and too often the ruin of the medium.

 

Where the end has been reached, there is only one course; to restore the physical health, and by clearly understanding, to hold all controls by the power of the will. For the time all efforts to receive communications should be avoided, and the mind directed in some channel of interest which will divert it from its absorption in the communications. To restore health, drugs are not to be relied on, and are of little use. Food, pure water, and pure air, with all the exercise possible, are essentials. The vital forces should be guarded from depletion in every direction. With restored health the undesirable manifestations will disappear. Then at regular and appointed times, not more frequently than twice a week, and continuing not to exceed one hour, seances may be given.

 

The will should always dominate. It is a great injustice to the individual for another to usurp control. The medium thus becomes a mere instrument, and a slave to the will of another. On the contrary the medium should bold himself superior to whatever control may come; should be able to command himself, and thereby the spirits who may or may not enter his sphere.

 

When it is found that one is capable of coming into rapport with spiritual influences; that long-desired communion can be held with departed loved ones, the tendency is, in the ecstasy of the moment to yield all other interests to this new-found joy. The paramount laws and conditions of such control are not thought of, and the dangers riot regarded. The influences are allowed to usurp the place of the will, and dictate in the most ordinary affairs of life. If only true and trustful friends, the guardian angels, held this control, there would be no danger, although such surrender of personality would be anything but desirable, but by this constant absorption the vital force becomes so weakened, the unsuspecting medium falls into the unresisting state, and passive to any influence, which in the nature of things he cannot know the character of. There are always those who gladly avail themselves of such opportunities, who not to awaken dist rust in their instrument, for a time personate the friends who have previously communicated, and thus gain complete control, which they then recklessly use.

 

The same result follows the constant use of mediumship by professional mediums; there is an exhaustion, and to produce the phenomena, and thus earn the fee, there comes a time when the medium is confronted with the alternative of failure or the practice of deception.

 

The endurance of different sensitives greatly varies, and while a single seance may leave one in collapse, another may give many before exhausting the force on which the manifestations depend, but this finally is reached by all. Safety depends therefore on always resting while there is ample self-protective force in reserve. It is thus clearly seen that mediumship should not be made a matter of sale, or of indiscriminate use. When it is, its value depreciates; it becomes a menace not only to the possessor, but to those who consult him.

 

This is not only true of all physical manifestations, but even more of the higher forms of psychic influence. Lecturers and "platform test" are confronted by it in their public work. The conditions under which they give "tests" to an eager audience, or receive the impressions enabling them to speak without pause for ail hour are the most exhaustive, and Yet they must retain their reputation or they will not be able to fill engagements.