Posted on 07 May 2018, 10:04

Authorities involved with the investigation of the Las Vegas shooting massacre and the more recent Austin bombings are mystified as to what motivated such deviant, insane behavior.  Neither the shooter nor the bomber seems to have had anything in his past to suggest he was capable of such a horrendous act.  There is, however, a possible explanation that no authority dares mention, as the person would be ignorantly laughed out of his profession if he or she did.  I’m referring to possession, or even lesser influence by devious “earthbound” spirits.

In her 1999 book, Freeing the Captives, the late Louise Ireland-Frey, M.D. (below) discussed various degrees of attachment or influence by dark souls, beginning with the most mild, temptation, and continuing on through shadowing, oppression, obsession, and possession.  Possession, as she defines it, involves the invading entity taking over the body of the host completely, pushing out the host’s own personality (soul) and expressing its own words, feelings, or behaviors while using the host’s body. 

In his 2003 book, Healing Lost Souls, William J. Baldwin, Ph.D., a pioneer in regression therapy, says that, based on many sessions, he is convinced that “past-life trauma and spirit interference are the primary causes in many cases of mental and physical illness.”  He explains that within six months of starting his past-life regression therapy practice, more than half his clients showed signs and symptoms of “spirit attachment.” 

The terminology differs among various practitioners, some seemingly holding obsession and possession as much the same thing, others referring to spirit interference, influence or attachment.  As for driving off the negative spirit entities, some refer to spirit releasement, others to disobsession, and still others to deliverance or exorcism.  However, they all appear to be talking about the same phenomenon.

As Ireland-Frey and others who have recognized the attachment phenomenon have pointed out, like attracts like and so a deceased alcoholic may look for a living alcoholic to feed off of, while a sex addict when alive will likely look for someone with a similar tendency. 

Brazil seems to be much more open-minded and advanced in this area of healing than the United States, as evidenced by the book Spiritism and Mental Health, edited by Emma Bragdon, Ph.D.  In this 2012 publication, subtitled “Practices from Spiritist Centers and Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals in Brazil,” Bragdon reports that there are 50 Spiritist psychiatric hospitals in Brazil.  In addition to the more standard treatments, including various medications, the Spiritist hospitals include disobsession, “and healing at a distance where mediums liberate patients from the influence of negative spirits.” 

According to Bragdon, the doctors practicing in the psychiatric hospitals of Brazil do not believe that the brain is the home of the mind and the spirit, and therefore cannot endorse the notion that chemicals are the primary means of treating mental disorders.  “They believe that vast aspects of the mind and spirit reside outside the physical brain in the ‘perispirit,’ a subtle body that envelops the physical body and holds the blueprint of the body and the seeds of illness,” she explains.  “The perispirit changes as it is worked with in Spiritist therapies – seeds of illness are dissolved and the receiver becomes spiritually uplifted.”

In Chapter 3 of Bragdon’s book, Alexander Moreira-Almeida, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of São Paulo medical school, states: “Obsession ultimately originates in the moral imperfections of the patient. The patient’s own negative feelings, thoughts, and behavior allow the obsessing spirit to mentally tune into the individual, as well as make the patient accept its influence.  The obsessing spirit is motivated most of the time by a vengeful feeling against the victim.” 

Moreira-Almeida further explains that most of the Spiritist approach to the treatment of such cognitive disorders grew out of the research carried out by French educator Allan Kardec (1804-1869).  He quotes Kardec:  “Obsession one day will be recognized as a cause of mental disorders, just as is accepted today the pathologic action of microscopic living creatures whose existence nobody even suspected, before the invention of the light microscope.”

Kardec cautioned against confusing pathological madness with obsession, pointing out that the latter is not a result of brain damage but “derives from the subjugation that malevolent spirits exert over certain individuals even though the obsession often has the appearance of madness itself.”

Joan Koss-Chioino, Ph.D. is identified in the book as a professor emerita in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University and also visiting professor of psychiatry and neurology at Tulane Medical Center.  She states that recent neuroscience research is determining why some persons are vulnerable to being overwhelmed by spirit intrusion or autonomous complexes in the way (pioneering psychiatrist Carl) Jung proposed.”  She adds that “Jung recognized the meaning and relevance of widespread experiences of spirits framed by a theory that accounts for the sharing of psychological processes – between those who are ‘normal’ and able to exert control over the disruptive effects of either spirit visitations or autonomous complexes, and those who cannot.”

Andrew Powell, a British psychiatrist, tells of a patient called Pat, who had suffered from depression for many years, apparently because her mother often mocked and belittled her.  Things did not improve after her mother died, as she could feel her mother’s presence all around her.  She felt that her mother was possessing her and she became suicidal.  In soul-centered therapy session, the mother communicated and explained that she had become pregnant at age 17, thereby ending her hopes and dreams, and that her daughter thus became the life-long target of her resentment.  After Powell convinced the mother to “walk towards the light,” Pat appeared to be at peace.

Doctors Roberto Lucio Viera de Souza and Jaider Rodrigues e Paulo tell of a patient named “Ernesto” who suffered from thoughts of murders and destruction, as well as self-destruction and other negative acts. He underwent 12 electroconvulsive therapy sessions with little progress.  After clairvoyants detected that he was dominated by a group of “spiritual villains,” he received magnetic therapy (chakra cleansing and energy transmission).  “Response to this therapy was clearly positive and fast,” the doctors reported. 

In the Foreword of Bragdon’s book, James Lake, M.D., a California psychiatrist, states that “the Spiritist movement in Brazil is a truly integrative model of mental health care that addresses the core issues of mental illness taking into account patients’ medical, social, cultural, and spiritual needs.”

“A new breed of therapist is healing the mentally ill not with talk and drug therapy, but by releasing troublesome or malevolent spirits who have attached themselves to their victims,” says Dr. Stafford Betty,  (below) professor of religious studies at California State University at Bakersfield.  “I am not talking about religious healers like Francis McNutt, but secular healers, some of them licensed psychiatrists or psychologists, who have discovered, often by accident, that this new therapy works better than what they learned in medical or graduate school.  They tell us that too often drug therapy only masks symptoms, and talk therapy reaches only as deep as the patient’s conscious mind can go.  But ‘spirit release’ usually heals, often permanently.  Not only does it heal the client; it heals the attached (or ‘possessing’) spirit.” 

In an article for the Journal of Religion and Health (“The Growing Evidence for ‘Demonic Possession’: What Should Psychiatry’s Response be?), Betty notes that M. Scott Peck, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist and author of the best-seller, The Road Less Traveled, startled the psychiatric community in 1983 by describing his participation in two exorcisms, while stating that the mental state of the two patients was dramatically improved.  “Before the voices were in control of me, now I’m in control of the voices,” one of the patients was quoted by Peck. 

Betty’s research suggests that genuine cases of possession are rare, perhaps applying to extreme cases like Charles Manson, and that most people are merely “oppressed” by the earthbound spirits, although using Ireland-Frey’s terminology they might be “obsessed.”

Since it is “unscientific” to even acknowledge the existence of a spirit world, it doesn’t seem likely that mainstream American mental health practitioners, mired in a materialistic paradigm, will ever accept the idea that mental illnesses originate anywhere but in the brain.    Nevertheless, Professor Betty says he has seen some progress in the psychiatric community, although usually not publicly.  He adds that his 2005 article, which is posted on academic.edu has received over 14,000 views and over 550 downloads.  So there is a little hope that American mental health experts will eventually see the light.

Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife, and Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I.

Dear Mike,
The lone shooter, Mr Pagourtzic of Santa Fe high school is yet another example of spiritistic grooming leading to violent behavior. He does not appear to have psychiatric or criminal history. I hope Mr Pagourtzic would be subjected to long term psycho-spiritual rehabilitation and not lethal injection. It is reasonable to assume that an unrepentant murderer would only turn into an earthbound murder spirit after death and more dangerous to the incarnates. This is where the folly of death penalty lies. Globally, 56 countries hold capital punishment. 103 countries have completely abolished it de jure for all crimes, six have banned it for ordinary crimes (while maintaining it for special circumstances such as war crimes), and 30 countries are abolitionist in practice. Death penalty is a practice of primitive tribes when there were no developed prison systems to protect the society. Two wrongs will not make one right.
One can only imagine the consequences of such spiritistic grooming among people working in the nuclear sites.
Regards,
Dr Pandarakalam

The write up on spiritistic causation of mass shooting was thought provoking. Some of these criminals are only the foot soldiers of an astral terrorist group consisting of earth bound spirits. If we could add the negative intellectual entities to this equation, we will be able to draw a better picture about the para-psychodynamics of violence. Marian apparitions offer testimonies of their existence while there are only scanty mentions about the existence of negative spirits in mediumistic literature. We may admit that intense spiritual experiences may have a mental mediumistic element and Marian apparitions are no exception; students of mediumship should not shy away from Marian apparitions.
“Dear children! Today, like never before, I invite you to prayer. Let your prayer be a prayer for peace. Satan is strong and desires to destroy not only human life, but also nature and the planet on which you live. Therefore, dear children, pray that through prayer you can protect yourselves with God’s blessing of peace. God has sent me among you so that I may help you. If you so wish, grasp for the rosary. Even the rosary alone can work miracles in the world and in your lives. I bless you and I remain with you for as long as it is God’s will. Thank you for not betraying my presence here and I thank you because your response is serving the good and the peace.” Medjugorje message-January 25, 1991. Mother Mary is alleged to have been appearing at Medjugorje in Bosnia since 1981.Our Lady seems to be giving hints here to the para-psychodynamics of war pathology that could lead to a total nuclear destruction of our planet.
Our Lady’s statement in Fatima apparitions after showing the percipient the vision of hell is highly relevant in this context. “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my immaculate heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace…” Obviously this means that the lost and revengeful souls are creating many havoc in the terrestrial plane. War is orchestrated in the evil conclaves of the astral world. These statements of the Blessed Mother point towards the para-psycho-dynamics of human thinking leading to violent acts.
The late Dr Kenneth McCall was another pioneer in recognizing the spiritistic causation of human violence. He also hypothesized that certain “ancestral illnesses” could be resulting from the   helpless activities of unhappy earthbound ancestral spirits. It is most often the help seeking behavior of the ancestral spirits in the lower plane of the astral dimension that lead to certain illnesses and the remedial measures include rescuing them through prayer activities.  It was very thoughtful and courageous of you to have published this piece of para-psychodynamics.
James Pandarakalam

Rick,

Thank you for your comment.  I just ordered your book on Kindle and look forward to reading it as soon as I get through a couple of other books. 

Also, many thanks to Gordon, Jess, Richard, Eric and all others for their comments.  I have asked Gordon to be interviewed for a future blog post here relative to spirit release therapy, or whatever other name might be given to it.

Amos,

Thanks for taking the time to explain your ideas on the Patience Worth matter.  I understand the points you make and you may very well be right.  As I have said in other blog posts here (search “reincarnation”) there are indications that reincarnation is a fact but it does not play out in the manner that most people who believe in it seem to think it does. As the discarnate Frederic Myers supposedly communicated through Geraldine Cummins, “the Buddhist’s idea of rebirth, of man’s continual return to earth, is but a half-truth.  And often half a truth is more inaccurate than an entire misstatement. I shall not live again on earth, but a new soul, one who will join our group, will shortly enter into the pattern or karma I have woven for him on earth.”

The bottom line here, I believe, is that reincarnation is beyond human comprehension and we can’t apply terrestrial standards to such celestial matters.

Michael,
I think one of the things that bothers me about the Patience Worth/Pearl Curran case is that ‘Patience’ seemed to be available at the ‘beck and call’ of Curran and that even if Patience had selected Curran, which apparently she did,  to be her instrument of writing, surely at times Patience, if she were a free spirit would have had other things to do, e.g. composing her novels,  rather than constantly over-shadowing Curran.  (Patience was by no means a malevolent spirit.)  Since the details of possession or over-shadowing are not known, who can really say what the relationship between Patience and Curran was. There are those who claim that the relationship was one of Multiple Personality Disorder, an illness of “split personality”; both terms that really don’t explain anything and are used by non-spiritualists to pathologize possible possession cases.

I have not read that Curran ever tried to contact Patience but could not, that is, that she placed a call, but nobody answered. Patience was always available when sought at the demand of Curran even for public stage performances. If ‘Patience’ was a past life personality of Curran she could have always been available to Curran at any time.

Patience was not an omniscient free spirit and at times I think she may have been wrong about things, reflecting antiquated knowledge and belief systems of prior lives, an example among others would be her initial disavowal of reincarnation when asked about it several times.  Although I think she may have misunderstood the question and she seemed to think that reincarnation was return to earth in the same body rather than a different one. Perhaps she was thinking more about resurrection of the body rather than reincarnation in another body and her understanding of the complexities of reincarnation—-if she understood it at all—- seemed to be simplistic. (In a later short poem Patience seemed to acknowledge reincarnation.)

I don’t recall in the literature about reincarnation or possession that any spirit entity or soul personality ever discussed or was aware of its other past life personalities so Patience may not have understood her place in a parade of past life personalities of Curran.

A simple explanation, perhaps most in keeping with Occam’s Razor is that the consciousness of Curran had previously lived as Patience Worth and/or some of the main female characters in the novels she wrote.  There is evidence in the dialogue of Theia, one of the main characters in her epic “The Sorry Tale”, that she (Theia) would try to reach through time to clear the reputation and declare the royal heritage of her illegitimate son Hatte,  the murderer and thief who was crucified on the cross next to Jesus. 

I think there is as much reason to believe that Patience was a past life personality of Curran as there is to think that Patience Worth was over-shadowing, but not possessing Pearl Curran, an explanation which I certainly don’t reject.  I think that the case of Patience Worth and Pearl Curran holds the key to answering whether or not consciousness continues to exist after the death of the body.  I only hope that at some time in the future, someone stumbles upon this case and delves deeply into it from a scientific perspective of spirit survival of which I think this case, in total,  provides proof. - AOD

Michael,
This is exactly the work I do everyday for my clients, except I don’t call it an exorcism, just a spirit relocation. I don’t send spirits into “a light”. I reconnect them with their family and loved ones.
I go into more detail in my new book, “My Haunted Reality”, available on Amazon.
I was just interviewed on Coast To CoastAM last Saturday by Lisa Garr of “The Aware Show”.
There is more information on my website: myhauntedreality.com.

Michael, this is a s good a summation of the obsession phenomenon as I’ve seen. The bookls quoted are certainly very useful for anyone interested in a deeper study.
To those I would add Wanda Pratnicka’s “Possessed By Ghosts” (2002) and R.H.Stavis’s recent “Sister Of Darkness” (2018).  As a practitioner of the releasements you mention, I would say that many negative and criminal behaviours are encouraged by obsessing spirits, who, living in the grey area between this world and the next and seeing that their actions are seemingly without consequence, vengefully and sometimes joyously continue their selfish and nasty activties using the easily influenced desires of incarnates. Anything from boozing, drugging gambling to murder and torture.

Unfortunately, general rules cannot be invoked.  Each case has to be carefully studied.  While I am personally convinced some of the mass shooters are obsessed by wicked spirits, some may be acting from purely personal motives. 

Not to mention the ones perpetrated by shadowy government operatives interested in inflicting fear upon the citizenry, fears that will facilitate greater measures of centralised control and surrendering of privacy.

Oh, and let us not forget fanatical ideologies who seek destruction of the “other” that their paradise may be manifested. When I have investigated, in the obe state, those shooters, I have found deceased members of their sects encouraging them in whatever way that is workable and spirit guides who try to discourage them and then alert other guides that a disaster is about to happen and who then move to the location ready to be transition helpers.

Mike,

Another terrific article !!!
I am a firm believer, as you quoted William Baldwin that “Past-Life” experiences and “Spirit Possession” contribute to many cases of Mental Illness ...  When the shootings by individuals began, my first thought was of possible “Spirit Possession”. In fact, I looked for ways to have the individuals evaluated for such ...

However, I have recently changed my mind - although I still strongly believe that the above is real and should be included in the evaluation of most Mental Illness, I am now convinced that the recent series of Shootings are “False Flags” (to permit “Gun Control” by our Government), and that MK Ultra (Mind Kontrol) of the Perpetrators is at the core of the situation ...
Other names that I would like to add for those who may be interested in more “Spirit Possession” info are:  Carl Wickland, Edith Fiore, Eugene Maurey, Irene Hickman, Shakuntala Modi, Ellie Pechet, Craig Hogan, J. Wright, Jeanne Gehringer (Dowser),to name a few ...  As mentioned in the Article above, Emma Bragdon is doing some wonderful work evaluating programs in Brazil, and the UK is also far ahead of the US (spiritrelease.org)...

Best Wishes to All,

RBB

I don’t normally go in for conspiracy theories. For example, I totally reject 9-11 “truther” stories. However, the Paddock Las Vegas incident doesn’t feel right to me. I suspect the FBI had some involvement (e.g. Fast and Furious) and that Paddock was an oddball personality with antisocial morphic tendencies psychically inherited from his father’s line.

Psychiatric medications do not heal, they merely dull symptoms.

I don’t think we can understand the extent to which possession/obsession/overshadowing impact the incarnate until we truly understand where and how our thoughts and feelings originate. That may be never. For that matter, we don’t even know what it means to be a distinct conscious entity, or if we really even are’ It may be an illusion and we may very well be a facet of a group soul with influences going back and forth between the other facets, which, in turn, may be linked to even higher order organizational structures. ho knows? Once the strict materialist position is ruled out - I think it should be based on evidence - a plethora of possibilities opens up.

And, all of that being said, there does seem to be a trend toward mass killings and a chain breaks at the weakest link(s) first. There is a lot of negativity - much of it violent - being pumped out into our society via the media and entertainment sectors. Maybe that is enough to cause what we see.

It should be noted that much spirit influence is of the positive nature.  My post of October 6, 2014 dealt in the archives at left dealt with this to some extent. Also, The Watseka Wonder does not seem to have involved negative influence.

Also, Carl Wickland was discussed in my post of June 28, 2011.

As for Amos’s comment about past-life personalities bleeding through in the Patience Worth case, I struggle with that one.  Clearly, Patience communicated with independent thought and when asked if she were a secondary personality of Pearl Curran, she said “I be me, and she be she.”  What would prevent Patience from admitting to be a prior personality of Pearl Curran?  I don’t think a prior personality and a secondary personality are always the same thing, but as some researchers asked relative to the secondary personality hypothesis, what was the point of the deception?  To put it another way, why did all those secondary personalities pretend to be spirits of the dead?  What did they gain by it?  What was the point of the deception?  The same could be asked of a prior personality.  Did Patience Worth not know that she was a prior personality of Pearl Curran?  How can a person be so wise and still not know that?  Of course, there is so much we don’t understand, but….

Thanks to Rick for adding the recent reports on the Vegas shooter.

Speaking of “Thirty Years”, I posted this a few days ago.

http://whitecrowbooks.com/books/feature/spirits_and_crime_by_carl_wickland/

Good article.

One of my healer friends told me that prison and insane asylum populations are loaded with inmates who are possessed.

You ought to do a research article on efforts being undertaken to exorcize possessed persons. I know a guy that does such exorcisms.

Interesting article. I thought Freeing the Captives was dreadful.

I’d recommend 30 years among the dead for a comprehensive study but few practical solutions.

Apparently, Paddock’s father was a psychopath and a bank robber who died in 1998. If possession is a reality,  Paddock’s dad might be a good candidate to play the possessor role.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/stephen-paddock-father-las-vegas-shooting-fbi-most-wanted-list-robber-family-a7979521.html

Very interesting Michael.  I have seen close-up that so-called psychiatric medications do not cure psychiatric disease but I think that there was never any pronouncement that those medications would “cure’ anything.  They simply allow some individuals to function normally in the world each day and that’s good!

I think that some psychiatric illnesses are soul sicknesses. e.g. anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, tics but others are brain diseases, e.g. hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, that is, in those latter examples the brain is compromised in some way so that it does not filter out extraneous external or internal vibrational input perhaps from other entities.

There may be cases of possession by malevolent earth-bound spirit entities, I don’t know, and perhaps there are possessing entities that are not so malevolent as they are mischievous or controlling, those entities causing little interference with one’s life and sometimes remaining throughout the lifetime.

An example of what I think is a true case of possession is the “Watseka Wonder”, a young girl, Lurancy Vennum who was possessed by the spirit of another young woman, Mary Roff who had died several years before Vennum became afflicted with seizures and periods of unconsciousness.  The possession lasted several months after which Vennum was cured of her afflictions and went on to marry, raise a family and live a ‘normal’ life without further possession by Roff.  Another example might be possession of Clara Norton Fowler by an entity Christine “Sally” Beauchamp, although most mainstream analyses of this case attribute it to “multiple personality” (a diagnostic term that doesn’t really explain anything).

What may also be in play here are past-life personalities which bleed through into the current lifetime and in some cases are interpreted as spirit possession.  I think the Patience Worth/Pearl Curran case may be an example of this kind of ‘attachment’.  Actually I think that it may be more common for past life personalities to influence the present lifetime than spirit possession.  - AOD

Spirit influence seems to play a role, not only in many violent outbursts, but less dramatically in daily life. How often have you heard it said, “He’s not himself today”?

Careful introspection suggests that we are subject to tendencies and moods that are at odds with our normal personality. A sudden bleak feeling takes us by surprise when there is no conscious, or perceptible unconscious, trigger. We imagine doing outrageous things that we would never actually do—so why do these ideas pop up? We over-react to certain individuals who rub us the wrong way and we can only guess they remind us of someone else, even if we cannot connect the feeling with any particular memory.

An explanation that makes sense for all these phenomena is that we are impelled to one degree or another by spirits, usually malevolent or mischievous.

Roberto Assagioli, in his therapeutic system known as psychosynthesis, argued in effect that people are not really individual but instead a psychological “committee.” As far as I know he never considered that some committee members might be outside agitators from the spirit world, but his theory might have carried more weight if he’d taken spirit activity on board.

As to Stephen Paddock, the Mandalay Bay shooter, the Las Vegas police report released last week noted that:

“Paddock acted alone. Thousands of hours of digital media were reviewed and after all the interviews conducted, no evidence exists to indicate Paddock conspired with or acted in collusion with anybody else. This includes video surveillance, recovered DNA and analysis of cellular phones and computers belonging to Paddock.

“No suicide note or manifesto was found. Of all the evidence collected from rooms 32-135 and 32-134, there was no note or manifesto stating Paddock’s intentions. The only handwritten documentation found in either room was the small note indicating measurements and distances related to the use of rifles.

“There was no evidence of radicalization or ideology to support any theory that Paddock supported or followed any hate groups or any domestic or foreign terrorist organizations. Despite numerous interviews with Paddock’s family, acquaintances and gambling contacts, investigators could not link Paddock to any specific ideology.
Paddock committed no crimes leading up to the October 1st mass shooting.

“Nothing was found to indicate motive on the part of Paddock or that he acted with anyone else.”

Various anomalies in the official story do cast some doubt on it—no video and photographic evidence of the huge number of shell casings that the number of rounds fired should have left; reports of other shooters, etc. But even if the picture needs a bigger frame, Paddock clearly was in the grip of a compulsion that can’t be rationally understood. Even if he was trying to pull off an arms sale that went wrong, arms dealers don’t normally start wildly shooting random victims.

I am glad to learn of the psychotherapists you mentioned who have incorporated spirit release into their work. If a lot more therapists did the same, we might see fewer demented mass killings and fewer sufferers from perverse impulses.