IS MEDIUMSHIP INJURIOUS TO HEALTH?

   ANSWER: That depends: Where a person becomes the medium for a disembodied spirit which

enters the body, as in the case of the trance mediums, where it takes possession of this body and

uses it as the owner might do, there is little if any harm done, provided the spirit control does not

abuse his privilege. In fact, there are some cases where spirit controls have a better idea of caring

for a body than the owner himself, and may sometimes improve the health. But spirits of a

high ethical nature do not usually control a medium, it is rather earthbound and low spirits such

 as Indians and others of a like nature who obtain a control over mediumistic persons, and when

 in possession of the body they may use it to gratify their low passions for

drink and sex. Thus they cause a disturbance to the system and a deterioration of the instrument.

   In the case of the materializing medium, we may say that the influence is always injurious.

The materializing spirit entrances the victim and then draws the ether of the vital body out through

 the spleen, for the difference between the materializing medium and the ordinary person is the

 fact that the connection between the vital body and the dense body is exceedingly lax, so that

it is possible to withdraw this vital body to a very great extent. The vital body is the vehicle

whereby the solar currents which give us vitality are specialized. Deprived of the vitalizing

principle, the body of the medium at the time of a materialization sometimes shrinks to almost

one-half its usually size; the flesh becomes flabby and the spark of life burns very low. When

the seance is over and the vital body replaced, the medium is awakened and in normal

consciousness. He then experiences a feeling of the most terrible exhaustion and sometimes,

unfortunately, resorts to drink to revive the vital forces. In that case, of course, the health will

very soon suffer and the medium will become a total wreck. At any rate, mediumship

 should be avoided, for apart from this danger to the instrument there are other

 and far more serious considerations in connection with the more subtle

bodies, and particularly in connection with the after-death state.

   WHERE MEDIUMS MAKE SO-CALLED SOUL TRIPS, WHAT IS IT THAT

LEAVES THE PHYSICAL BODY, AND CAN IT LEAVE

IN THE WAKING STATE TO GATHER DATA?

   ANSWER: A medium is a negative or involuntary clairvoyant and under the control of a

spirit from the Desire World. He or she corresponds to the victim of a hypnotist in the Physical

World. In the case of the hypnotist, he is seen by his victim in the waking state, while

 the medium does not see the spirit which hypnotizes her until she has been driven

 out of her body. She is then clothed in her desire body and therefore

 usually unable to bring her experiences back.

   All her experiences take place while the physical body is in a trance. It is the Ego

clothed in the mind and desire body which leaves the physical body behind, and the

same separation takes place then as in ordinary dreamless sleep, with the difference,

 however, that the physical body is not left tenantless upon the bed, but the spirit control

usually enters the physical body of the medium, taking possession and using it according

 to pleasure, often to the great detriment of the medium. For when such a spirit control has

 been a drunkard or libertine during earth life, it will often use the medium's body to gratify its

craving for liquor or its base, sensual instincts. We cannot too seriously impress upon

people that this physical body is our most valuable instrument, and that it is very wrong

for anyone to abandon it to the tender mercies of either a hypnotist or a spirit control. In

 the case of mediums, there is a still graver danger, for sometimes it is not an ordinary human

 Ego which is the control, but an elemental that cannot ordinarily function in the Physical

World. When the medium at death enters the Desire World, the elemental has obtained such

a power over the desire body of the medium that it may rob the owner of his vehicle.

 The desire body is the vehicle whence comes the spring to action, and therefore when an

Ego is deprived of that vehicle there is nothing to cause it to reincarnate. The elemental may

keep this body even for millions of years, and so, while the result of humanity is progressing,

 the unfortunate Ego, deprived of its desire body, is left inert and will be far behind all its

fellows, perhaps, before it is released from the bondage of this entity. Therefore,

 mediumship is the gravest danger to the soul the writer knows of or is able to

 conceive, except the practice of black magic.

   I HAVE TAKEN MANY SOUL FLIGHTS, AND ON ONE OF THESE JOURNEYS

MY GUIDE TOOK ME THROUGH GATES INTO A CRYSTAL CITY AND ON INTO A

 TEMPLE FILLED WITH ETHEREAL PEOPLE, SAYING, "THIS IS GOD'S HOLY

CITY." WILL YOU KINDLY TELL ME WHERE THIS IS, WHEY THERE ARE GATES

AND WALLS AROUND THE CITY, AND WHY EVERYTHING LOOKED LIKE CRYSTAL?

   ANSWER: It is one of the peculiarities of desire stuff, which is the matter of the Desire

World that it is exceedingly plastic and readily molded by thought. In the twinkling of an eye

 it takes the most different shapes according to the thought that ensouls it,

and where many people upon earth think along similar lines all their thoughts mass

 themselves and form one grand whole.

   Thus in the lower regions of the Desire World, the thoughts of people who believe in a

 fiery, furnace-like Hell make of the desire stuff there such a place of torture. There we may

 see devils with horns, hoofs and tails, prodding the unhappy sinners with pitchforks, and

 often when people pass out at death, after having lived in that belief, they are in a sad state

of fear on beholding this place which they have helped to create. There is also in the higher

 regions of the Desire World a city such as you describe, a New Jerusalem with pearly

 gates, with a sea of glass and its great white throne upon which is seated a thought form

 of God, created by these people and appearing like an old man. It is probable that you

 visited this place, which is a permanent feature of the Desire World, and will remain so

 as long as people continue to think of the New Jerusalem in that way, for these forms

 have no life apart from the sustained thoughts of mankind, and when in time humanity

 shall have outgrown that faith, the city created by their thoughts will cease to exist.

 Its crystal-like appearance is due to the exceeding brilliance of the desire stuff of which

it is built. The old alchemists called the Desire World "astral," "starry," on that account.

   ARE NOT THE DESIRE BODIES LEFT BY PROGRESSING EGOS USED

 BY ELEMENTALS TO DECEIVE FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF THE

 DECEASED PERSON? HOW CAN THEY BE DETECTED AND RECOGNIZED?

   ANSWER: When the spirit has passed out at death, and after a stay in Purgatory of shorter

 or longer duration enters the First Heaven, it still has with it the desire body used during the

 earth life, but when it enters the Second Heaven that desire body is left behind in a like

 manner as the vital and dense bodies were left at death and shortly after. But, while the

dense body goest to decay and disintegrates, becomes inert and useless AT ONCE when

 the spirit has left it, it is very different with the desire body. The material of which that body

 is composed is so much more vitalized by the UNIVERSAL Spirit that it will retain the ability

 to move about a long time after the spirit has left. The shell is drawn by magnetic attraction to

 those with whom it associated during earth life and a memory of that past life very often

enables it to pose successfully as a deceased relative. This is particularly the

case when the shell is used by an elemental entity.

   These empty shells ensouled by elementals account very satisfactorily for most of the

 phenomena encountered at spiritualistic seances. The pranks of these elementals in

 spilling water down the necks of the sitters, throwing chairs, tables and the

like about, are specimens of what may be done by such empty

 shells when in the possession of elementals.

   As to how they may be detected or recognized by us, it will be evident that while

our deceased friends and relatives during earth life possessed common sense,

there is nothing to be gained from the inane nonsensical communications of these

empty shells, for the spirit which was in reality our friend has passed away,

 leaving the house empty. Therefore we may judge them by words and acts as we judge people here.

   CAN ELEMENTALS ASSUME THE SHAPE OF ANIMALS

OR REPTILES, AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STOP THEM?

   ANSWER: In this material world all the forms are stable and do not easily change. The Desire

 World is widely different in that respect. The fairy tales, like the metamorphosis of Cinderella's

 mice, etc., are actual facts in the Desire World, for the forms change at the will of the ensouled

life with a lightening-like rapidity, which is very bewildering to one who enters that world as a

 neophyte. It is, therefore, necessary for the clairvoyant to be trained, in order to escape being

 glamoured by THE FORM, which is always changing and may assume any shape at any

moment. When we are able to see the ensouling LIFE, it does not matter what form it takes

 upon itself for the time being, we are not deceived. Like all others in the Desire World,

 elementals have this faculty of changing their shape, and it is due to that fact that so many

 strange tales or visions seen are thought true by untrained clairvoyants. Nothing can be

 done to stop elementals from changing their shape, but we may shoo them

away from us as we chase a serenading feline from below our bedroom window.

   HOW CAN ONE AVOID BECOMING OBSESSED?

   ANSWER: Obsession is a state where a discarnate spirit has taken permanent possession

of the body of someone after dispossessing the owner. but sometimes people who have

 formed a habit of drunkenness or some other low vice seek to excuse themselves by

 claiming to be obsessed. Wherever a person makes that statement concerning himself,

one may nearly always be sure that it is nothing but an excuse, for a thief who has stolen

 something here in the material world does not go about and tell people of his theft, neither

 does an obsessing entity go around proclaiming the fact. It is very certain that such an

 entity does not care what is thought about the man whose body he has stolen, so

 that there is no reason why he should tell and risk being exorcised.

   There is an infallible means of knowing whether a person is really obsessed, namely,

by diagnosis of the eye. "The eye is the window of the soul," and only the true owner is

 capable of contracting and expanding the iris, or pupil of the eye, so that if we take a

 person who claims to be obsessed or whom we think is obsessed, to a room which is

darkened, we shall find that the pupil of his eye will not expand if he is obsessed. Neither

 will the pupil contract when we bring him into the sunlight, nor expand if we ask him to

 look at an object at a distance or contract when he is asked to read small type. In short,

 the pupil of the eye will respond neither to light nor to distance when a person is

obsessed, but there is also a certain disease called locomotor ataxia, where the iris

will not respond to distance but is responsive to light.

   No one who maintains a positive attitude of mind can ever become obsessed, for so

long as we assert our individuality that is strong enough to keep all outsiders away.

But in spiritualistic seances where the sitters are negative there is always a great danger.

The best way to avoid becoming obsessed would be to maintain this positive attitude.

 And anyone who is at all negatively inclined should avoid spiritualistic seances, crystal

gazing and other methods of evoking spirits. That is bad practice anyway, for those who

 have gone beyond have their work to do there and should not be brought back here.