by Harriette & F. Homer Curtiss

In this dense region of the Astral Realm there is a third great class of obsessing entities, and also swirling currents of perverted thought and creative forces which sweep over humanity like black thunder storms and hurricanes of evil. Therefore, although this is the most disagreeable phase of the Astral World to discuss, nevertheless because of its ever-present dangers through which the evolving Soul must pass on its journey to the Hall of Wisdom, it is our duty to indicate the character of its denizens and forces and how they may be avoided or overcome.

This third class comprises those who, while on earth, used their human intellects to enhance and gratify their normal and then their perverted animal desires. Hence in this class lust is the ruling passion instead of drink or crime as in the two classes already described, although both of those classes also seek this form of gratification as a secondary object. In this Realm such entities must experience the effects of the causes engendered while on earth, for only thus can they truly learn that “the wages of sin is death.”

The occult student, of course, understands that the suffering endured in this Realm is not eternal punishment for any individual Soul, as the orthodox believe, for the individual is ultimately purged of his evil and passes on into the higher Realms. “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” The suffering lasts only until the fires of passion and desire have burned themselves out or until the Soul, through sincere repentance, reform, spiritual aspiration and a purification of the mind is able to conquer passion and desire and rise above them. Such conditions of burning and disintegration are eternal in that they will last as long as there is anything false or evil to be consumed.

Believing that life consists of sensation and gratified desire, such entities haunt both dens of vice on earth and also those whose impure thoughts give these entities an opening through which to enter the aura and steal the life-force of their victims, that they may prolong what seems to them the only life and thus escape the approaching disintegration that appears to them to be annihilation. The great danger to the living is that this Realm overlaps and is closest to the physical, hence many persons dwell in it much of the time who do not consider themselves impure and who would be horrified and shocked could they realize into what astral company their impure thoughts and uncontrolled desires led them.

In many cases of melancholia the mind is dwelling in this Realm. For when such thoughts are entertained they open the aura and the consciousness to the influence, suggestions and forces of the entities in this Realm. Yet the purification and control of thought is even more important in the Astral World than in the Physical World, because of the more immediate and powerful results. For when such thoughts are entertained in the Astral World the corresponding forces rush in and make that person almost immediately the astral embodiment of those loathsome evils.

It must be remembered that the spiritual Creative Force is not sex-force, but the Divine life-force which gives sex-force its creative power. That is, it becomes or manifests as sex-force only when a stream or current of it finds expression through the sex centers or is focused there by thought. If this ever-flowing stream of Creative Force is not utilized in various forms of mental or other creative activity it gradually accumulates, fills the aura and tends to overflow through the sex centers as the points of least resistance. The balance and adjustment of this force should naturally be brought about between man and wife through normal relations in love and purity. But where this relation cannot be entered into by both in harmony, love and purity of thought – also among those who are unmarried – the remedy is neither its expression through the sex centers nor its suppression, but its diversion into other channels of creative activity. Where this is not done the aura becomes so overcharged with it that it attracts the class of evil astral entities to which we refer in this lesson. These entities once having gained entrance to the aura, usually over the line of ambition, vanity, sex desire, etc., absorb the life-force and sap the vitality to prolong their lives and carry out their evil designs. Having made the contact with the victim they constantly stimulate his sex passions by bringing before his mental vision suggestions, images and thoughts of lust. Response to such thoughts and suggestions makes progressive obsession a fairly easy matter, but resistance to them, with a sincere desire and determined will to conquer, together with a request to the Christ-light within for help, makes such obsession impossible; for such requests or spiritual aspiration invokes forces which dissolve evil thought forms as the sunlight dissipates fog.

Wherever response to their evil suggestions is found, these entities throw a glamour of illusion over the victim, in many cases presenting themselves as high spiritual teachers or as advanced Souls needing merely the victim’s magnetism; perhaps as a husband or wife of a former incarnation; as a Soul-mate or under the guise of some living person with whom the victim is in love or who has attracted his or her attention or who has perhaps innocently aroused thoughts of lust. But no matter how high-sounding the excuse or how plausible the sophistry by which they gain the confidence of the victim and entrance to the aura, the sex idea will ultimately be presented in some form and that force be drawn upon. Sometimes after this has been accomplished, and nearly always upon challenge, the glamour is dispelled and the true nature of the entity is revealed. This usually brings a revulsion of feeling and a sincere remorse which may protect the victim from temptation for a time, but if the creative forces are not diverted from the sex centers and utilized elsewhere, when they again accumulate he is open to a repetition of the same revolting experience, unless in the meantime he has learned to purify and control his thoughts and absolutely close the door of his aura to all such temptations and suggestions.

Especially are the above temptations and suggestions apt to be presented to the student who is seeking to lead the higher life; for he has deliberately turned away from the old thoughts, indulgences and habits of life and set a new and higher standard, especially of purity, and his old thought-forms and temptations strive to drag him down to indulge them again. Also, having set this higher standard he thereby invokes the Great Law to prove his statements; prove whether or not he really means what he says and has the will and has gained the power to resist and overcome.

It is well known that Light attracts the creatures of the darkness, like moths around a flame, hence, as the Neophyte’s purified aura begins to shine out it attracts the attention of the evil entities. Furthermore his very spiritual advance has made him more sensitive to thought influence and to the Astral World. Therefore, that such temptations should come upon the Neophyte after his period of exaltation and spiritual realization, is not a sign that he is falling away from his ideals and is degenerating, but is an evidence that the growth he has made is being tested as to just how solid and enduring it is. No matter how many times he may be overcome and fail, let him put his failures behind him and determine to try harder next time, remembering the real nature of the entity who seduced him, and also his own power to gather out of the burning the force of the Christ with which to overcome in the future. He should never mourn or even pray over his failures, for to do so is to dwell upon them and strengthen them by his thought-force. Rather let him rouse his slumbering will to the fighting pitch and determine that next time he will conquer, then put the matter entirely out of mind and shut the door upon it.

We have used the masculine pronouns in this lesson merely for literary convenience and not because only men are so tempted and obsessed; for we are sorry to say that quite as many, if not more, women are led to indulge their impure thoughts in this way. Hence all we say herein applies equally to women and to men. In fact, being more sensitive to astral influences, women would be more easily seduced by astral entities were it not that their intuition is more developed and is quicker to recognize the nature of the temptations than it is in man. Many, however, who are somewhat psychic plainly see the obsessing entity and call him their “astral lover, spirit-mate or spirit-husband,” etc., under the delusion that any truly spiritual being in the higher realms needs either physical magnetism or sex-force. It is just such influences as these that inculcate ideas of so-called “sex freedom” which inevitably result in some form of illicit or “free-love.”

The compelling influence of this phase of the Astral Realm is not brought about suddenly, but like that of the other Realms is of gradual growth. It begins as a vague desire, then as this desire is yielded to and the person responds to the suggestions of the astral influence, his own desires – which normally he might control – are augmented by the desires of the astral entities, and mere suggestions grow rapidly into definite and overmastering currents of thought. As such lustful thoughts are entertained their power grows stronger until they result in actual expression and gratification and finally in actual obsession and bodily control by the astral entity. These teachings are fully corroborated by Jesus and St. Paul in the Bible, by Paracelsus, Swedenborg, Jacob Boehme and others among the older writers and by the venerable spiritualist, Dr. Peebles – than whom no one is in a better position to know the reality of the horrors of spirit obsession – and many others among living authorities. If any are skeptical as to the reality of these conditions or think we are merely perpetuating superstition, let them read Dr. Hartman’s Paracelsus or Dr. Peebles’ Spirit Obsessions in which Dr. Peebles says: “Doubtless nineteen-twentieths of all intelligent spiritualists believe in demoniacal obsessions; that is, psychic influences from evil-disposed spirits. . . . They also follow and if possible co-mingle their psychic emanations with certain mortals, and cling to them as fungus and moss to trees, thus vampire-like, absorbing their vitality.” We are, therefore, neither spreading superstition nor inculcating fear, for we give plain and simple directions how to prevent such influences or obsessions and also how to conquer and drive them away when present. Our teachings are, therefore, not merely academic and informing, but are vitally constructive and fear eradicating.

We see that these conditions result from two chief causes, first the suppression or lack of diversion of the Creative Force into normal channels away from the sex centers, and, second, from entertaining and dwelling upon impure thoughts and lustful desires. No one in everyday life in the world can entirely prevent such suggestive thoughts from being presented to his consciousness, any more than he can prevent unpleasant sights and inharmonious sounds being presented to his eyes and ears while passing through the streets. The point is – and this is most important to realize clearly – they need not be entertained when presented, but can be instantly dismissed. Our glance may present to us the contents of the gutter as we pass, but we do not need to feast our eyes upon it. We can look beyond it and ignore it, or better still, report it and have it removed. We may have to cross the manhole of a sewer, but we do not have to stop and inhale its noxious odors. Our ears may overhear a lewd joke or suggestive song, but we do not have to remain where such things are going on, or remember or gloat over them. Just so with the evil thoughts and lewd suggestions and lustful desires presented to our consciousness from either the Astral or Physical Worlds. Impress this idea strongly upon your mind. You do not have to entertain them, give them lodgment and allow them to grow and develop until they force you to express and gratify them.

Remember that a fundamental law of psychology tells us that “every thought entertained tends to express itself in terms of action, unless counteracted by a contrary thought of equal power.”

This law applies to all suggestions either from without or within. Those which are entertained tend to result in action. For instance, the carrying of a revolver suggests the right to kill at your discretion, and the temptation to do so is continually present, only waiting the opportunity for expression. We should, therefore, not only resist temptations to respond to suggestions which we do not wish to execute but should take pains to avoid placing ourselves in positions where such temptations are suggested. It is difficult for many to resist such temptations because through indulgence in past lives they have been born in this life with weakened wills, lack of self-control and with psychopathic tendencies in general, for the parents with whom they have chosen to incarnate furnished them a body which is either more or less defective or which has an nervous instability. Those who refuse to learn and refuse to exercise self-discipline in this life will lay the foundation for psychopathic and paranoid conditions in a future life. In this respect at least, universal military training – even if not actual service in war – will do much for the regeneration of the race. For under such training the Soul will be taught the principles of discipline, i.e., obedience, self-sacrifice for an ideal, respect for an authority and proved talent, consideration for others, personal hygienics, etc., all of which will be a tremendous aid to self-discipline after the period of service is over.

The so-called cases of dual and multiple personalities which so greatly puzzle our modern day psychologists, in most cases are simply temporary obsessions by various disembodied personalities, although there are certain exceptions too technical to be described here. Rather than admit this simple and almost self-evident fact, recognized throughout the ages, even by Jesus and all the Great Teachers, our modem psychologists – few if any of whom are psychic, have developed any psychic powers or have any personal knowledge of psychic experiences, although they still claim to be psychologists! – have concocted the most elaborate imaginings as to the splitting up of the one personality into various secondary selves, etc., which require a far greater demand upon our credulity than to admit the simple fact of obsession and control by an astral entity.

As St. John tells us: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Astral World).”

In the Astral Realm all these forces are represented, and are gathered together in what may well be called principalities, with their rulers, satraps and servitors, all prepared to rush forth and fight in every way possible to uphold their rule. And it is these concentrated forces of evil against which we must wrestle day and night. Woe to the poor mortal who opens a door, even a tiny crack, to any of the forces thus enumerated. For instance, consider ambition. There is no more powerful principality than the one ruled by ambition. Often a man or woman is working truly and sincerely and following the Christ in humility, when some well meaning friend suggests to them that they are doing great things which are deserving of recognition by the world, or praises them lavishly for doing their duty. At once the door of ambition is unlatched, and as this door hangs ever loose on its hinges, the recipient of the praise may rather enjoy gazing through its portals. But alas, ere they are aware of their danger, an army from the Principality of Ambition rushes through and captures the citadel of their hearts, and they are carried away captive; so it is with all the other principalities when we open the door through harboring or contemplating their characteristic thoughts.

Just as there is beauty, sweetness, fragrance and harmony in nature and the world around us, as well as inharmony, disease and decay, so is there beauty, sweetness, love and purity in the Astral World. And these aspects will be presented to our consciousness instead of the evil if we seek for, demand, affinitize ourselves with and entertain them. If we dislike the odors and conditions found in the slums of a city and desire to enjoy pure air, the trees, flowers and birds, we can enjoy them whenever our desire for them is strong enough to cause us to leave the slums and seek the parks, fields or woods. And just as there are obsessing entities who would ruin us to gratify their evil desires, so are there loving friends, spiritual teachers and currents of life-giving spiritual force which will help and uplift us if we correlate with them accordingly. But neither these friends, teachers or forces can reach us while we are surrounded by dark clouds of anger, passion, selfishness or lustful thoughts, nor can they force their way to our side as long as we entertain the crowds of debauched astral entities or perverted teachers which surround us under such conditions. It is for us to choose which class of thoughts and associates we will entertain in the Astral World, just as we choose our associates in the Physical World.

The remedy for overcoming such conditions is the same as for obsession by the two classes mentioned prior, i.e., the fearless and positive challenge “In the name of the Christ,” and the determined invocation of the Divine Fire and Light of the Christ, in the presence of which no thing of darkness or evil can exist. Especially should young persons who are having trouble in controlling their thoughts and desires impress this upon their subconscious mind just before dropping to sleep; for it is thus possible to train the subconscious mind to wake up and dispel such forces and entities the moment they approach your aura, even while asleep. Also hold the idea of closing a door in your mind and your aura which will shut out all such thoughts and suggestions as soon as they attempt to intrude. For remember, you do not have to entertain them.

Another way to protect yourself is to live in such perfect accord with the Christ [Consciousness] and dwell so continually in the thoughts of love, purity and unselfishness, and occupy your mind so fully with earnest thoughts of higher things and with study on these subjects that all obscene thoughts or suggestions will be repugnant to you. You will then turn from them as naturally as you would step over a puddle of mud in the street. We cannot be absorbed in two things at once, or as Jesus said, we cannot serve two masters, for we will hold to the one and despise the other. Therefore if the general trend of your mind and desire is for higher things do not be distressed if the thing you despised occasionally sweeps over your consciousness, for if you do not serve it, it can never become your master. But remember you will never reach a point where vigilance is not necessary. “Guard thou the door of thy heart.”

Excerpt from Realms Of The Living Dead

See Part I here.