Possession by an Idea, Possession by a Spirit

02 March 2025

Let's say someone you love and have been parted from for five years is going to visit you. You think of them coming and feel excited. This excitement makes you energized, and makes you slightly obsessed over how to prepare. The obsession to prepare drives you to go to the corner store, buy some tea, go to the department store, buy extra bedding for the couch in the living room, go to the home goods store, buy some decorations for your living room, get the alternative weekly, look up events to do during the time your guest is coming.

So the idea of them coming gets you to do things that fit the idea's content and implicit plan, that you will be prepared to receive them. The idea's psychic energy gives you strength, like it's part of your bloodstream. You become an embodiment of the idea of them arriving at the place you live. In fact, when you give yourself over to the idea, when it drives your behavior completely, you are that idea. Either you have given up your self, or your self is identical with it.

Similarly, when an evil spirit comes over you, and you act on its impulses, you become that evil spirit. Or is it really you? If in your heart you don't approve of what the spirit is doing with your body, then no. But if you approve of your own evil spirit, then you are an evil spirit. So when a demon acts through you, if you approve of what it does, you are a demon. If "what you are" (your flesh and behavior) is demonic and "who you are" (your heart) is demonic, then you are nothing but a demon. Either you have given up your self, or your self is identical with it.

A method of anti-temptation is to embody a holy spirit or idea, or even to become it sometimes.

When we give ourselves over to an idea or spirit, the spirits tend to leave us after a while, allowing us the chance to exercise free will.