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The Question of Possession by Vital Entities · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The question of possession by vital beings has been
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  sensationalized to such an extent in modern society, with
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  an entire genre of motion pictures depicting such things
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  in an extreme way, that it is difficult to have a serious
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  discussion and review of whatever reality underlies these
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  sensational tales. It is also true that in some
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  cases, people were accused of being possessed not because of
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  actual possession, but due to desire, greed, fear, or other
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  motives of individuals in a position to press the claim.
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  The Salem Witch Trials in Salem, MA represent such a misguided
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  approach to the subject. The Holy Inquisition conducted
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  by the Catholic Church also distorted the question of
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  possession based on motives of power, greed, and control.
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  These things tend to undermine the credibility of reports of
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  true possession as we confuse the misguided and sensational
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  reports and events with actual underlying reality that can be
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  seen or documented. In this light, the Mother
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  details experiences she had in relation to cases of possession.
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  It should be noted that not everyone who acts in an
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  unpredictable or even seemingly irrational way can be described
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  as possessed. There are numerous potential
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  causes of extreme unorthodox behavior that cannot be chalked
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  up to this cause in modern society.
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  We have to add the widespread use of psychotropic drugs as
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  another potential cause of uncontrolled behavioral
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  manifestations. The underlying causes and the
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  question of possible possession are not always mutually
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  exclusive. Drugs, neurochemical imbalances,
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  physical injury, or trauma of various sorts, including
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  psychological trauma, may evidence similar behaviors as
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  possession, but this does not exclude the possibility of their
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  masking a case of possession or opening the door to it.
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  Careful study and review must be undertaken to do an accurate
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  differential diagnosis with potentially multiple layers of
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  involvement to bring about the manifested behavior suspected of
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  being cases of possession. The disciple asks, Are mentally
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  deranged people possessed? The mother answers Yes, unless
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  there is a physical lesion, a defect in the formation or an
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  accident, a congestion, in all other cases it is always a
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  possession. The proof of it is that if a
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  person is brought to you who is altogether mentally deranged, if
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  he has a lesion he cannot be cured, while if there is no
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  physical lesion, if it is a possession, then one can cure
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  him. Unfortunately, these things
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  happen only to people who like them.
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  There must be in the being much ambition, vanity, combined with
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  much stupidity and a terrible pride.
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  It is on such things that those beings play.
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  I have known cases like that of persons who were partially
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  possessed, and I succeeded in freeing them from the beings who
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  possessed them. Naturally they felt some relief,
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  a kind of ease, for a time, but it did not last long.
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  Almost immediately it wore off, and they thought, Now I have
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  become quite an ordinary creature, whereas before I was
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  an exceptional being. They used to feel within them an
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  exceptional power, even if it was a power to do evil, and they
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  were satisfied with it. So what did they do?
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  They called back with all their force the power they had lost.
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  Of course, the being that had been destroyed could not come
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  back, but as these beings exist in thousands, it was replaced by
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  another. I've seen this happen three
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  times consecutively in a case. So much so that in the end I had
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  to tell the person I am tired, get rid of it yourself, I am no
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  longer interested. End Quote Reference Sri
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  Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter
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  5, Occult Forces, pages 116 to 117.