The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1883-03-03
SPIRIT POSSESSION.
People Surrounded by Invisibles Who
Have no Qualities, Capacities, De
sires But Worldly Ones.
Confirmed Drunkards the Victims Of
Dead Inebriates Who Tempt
Them to Crime.

bic people, who are our dead, who have no
qualities, capacities or desires but worldly
ones and no world but this. All of us know
many such persons in life, and death is merely
the passage of the interior body out of the
body of f1esh-no more.
What is there in that process by means of
which they can possess other qualities, capa-
cities or desires, when passed out, Having
no world but this, and no access to this world
but by means Of human organs and the human
senses no eyes to see with, nor ears to hear
with, nor taste, nor touch, nor smell, but ours,
and their control of ours depending upon our
will, the stake which the evil ones have in
keeping from human discovery of their secret,
and the laws by which it is available to them,
are obvious to any understanding. Men will
cease to be controlled by them for vicious
purposes, and the vicious among them will
fail to find any means of indulgence when
that secret shall become universally known,
for men will learn to expel them
by simple act of the will. 1t
was these tempting spirits to whom
Jesus alluded when he said in the great prayer,
leave us not to temptation, but deliver US
from evil"
There are thousands of people who do not
require for their personal safety to be made
aware of this truth, because they cannot be
tempted to vice or crime; but there are also
thousands who do require it for their personal
safety. spirit can only possess one whom
in his natural organization he is like. To
such individual he is attracted such he will
tempt and seek by all ways to control because
he can make him the means Of gratifying his
earthly desires. Sots, or confirmed drunk
ards, are always the victims of dead inebriates,
of some who love only drink, some who tempt
them'to crime. A drunkard so posses Sed will
do acts of which he is wholly unconscious and
can never afterwards recall to memory be-
cause they are not his acts, but the design Of
another intelligence and directed by another's
will. A conspicuous case Of this kind was
that OF young Foster, of New York, known as
the " Car hook Slayer" who was executed
! some years ago for murder, committed under
the following circumstances:
He had been at a drinking saloon until
late hour when he took the street car to 90
home. On entering he iostled lady, for
which he was mildly reproyed by the gentle
man in whose company she was. Foster
took standing position against the front of
the car and glared fiercely at the gentleman,
never taking his eyes from him. Presently
the car was stopped, and the latter rose and
got out, when Foster followed. Passing on
the outside to the front platform he seized the
car hook, and without word, with one blow
slew this man. He was taken to the police
prison, where he fell asleep. On waking in
the morning he inquired eagerly why he was
there, and, being told, protested that there
was some mistake, that he had met no such
person, had been in no street car, had COM
mitted no such crime. This he maintained till
his last moment on the scaffold He could
remember only being al the saloon.
Now drink may destroy mans inteli-
gence, may render him beastly and insensible,
but drink cannot supply another intelligence
in its place. Whose then was the intelligence
the consciousness, the WILL that had glared
at Fosters victim through Fosters eyes, that
coolly and methodically sought a weapon at
just the only place where one could be found,
and with it deliberately committed the muir
der ? 1t was case of spirit-possessioa. II
may have been the deed of one actuated by
personal enmity toward the victim, or by a
feeling of revenge toward society; or Of one
who merely loved to kill No crime is ever
committed excepting under the influence Of
such control, for il 1t Is not itself the source of
the incentive, as perhaps it always is, the
thought instantly invites it, draws it as the
loadstone by the magnet is drawn.
bought some months ago. at Mr.. Petitpan's
secondhand furniture store for IS cents, an
old book, two volumes in one, called "The
Celestial Telegraph" by L. Alph. Cahagnet.
The author was psychologist who mesmer-
Used his subject and thus intromitted him or
her in to the spirit world On page 90, vol
ume H., is the following description OF the
phenomenon I refer to
adele (his subject) at this moment appeared
much astonishcd, eXcaming: Here is drol
thing. ] see this woman gradually entering
her husbands body. crhe husband was present
and had applied for the sitting) lose sight of
her, find her again anu then lose her again.
How can il be that she can thus dissolve her
self, shall say, i'm his breaStl o, my God, how
great art Thou and how insignificant (lnabln)
we TO comprehend such miracles"
These are facts and possibilities which all
men should know, and yet which they will not
permit themselves 10 be told nor believe when
they are told. Why not? They may be told
anything concerning the affairs of this world
without offense Why not OF the other
Simply because its effect would be to take
from our unseen masters their power over us.
They control the human will and SOW preiu.
dices in human minds that grow like cocoa
grass.
But the light is breaking that will dissolve
their vast empire, which embraces all nations
and covers all the earth, and, like a starless
and moonless night, it will forever pass away.
nm