1928 Vanquishing A Vampire By C.H.M.

= Vanquishing A Vampire =
By C. H. M. (Editor Of “WORK")
I HAD a curious experience on the night of Feb. 22, 1928, which may interest readers of The Messenger.
I had just finished reading one of those pseudo-occult publications which are so obviously edited and written by people of a very low order of intelligence; and I’ll admit that it had plunged me into one of those periods of depression which sometimes come to all of us.
I was wondering how it was that the occult so often attracts people of a low order of intelligence and frequently repels persons of higher intelligence; and I was hovering around' the thought that perhaps after all it was a matter of delusion . . . that one really didn’t have anything very definite upon which to, base a belief in higher forces and invisible powers. I was just wondering whether it was worthwhile to lead a somewhat dull and ascetic life, with nothing of real interest and importance to compensate for it, when the telephone rang.
It was an F. T. S., a woman who has perhaps an exaggerated idea of my “occult standing.’! Her son, who is in the theatrical profession, had just been telling her about a young fellow, a dancer of French-Roumanian gypsy blood, who had confessed to him the Saturday previous that for three years he had been obsessed by what he had finally decided was a vampire.
He had passed three sleepless nights because of it, and he persuaded the son of the F. T. S. to sleep with him on Saturday night to see if that would keep the thing away. It didn’t. The son told me later that along after midnight the victim began to toss an to struggle in his sleep, and finally fell into' a stiff cataleptic condition. In the morning. he showed definite marks of teeth high on the left breast (two needle-like punctures opposing each other) and he had lost many pounds in weight. 
The F.T.S. woman wanted me to hypnotize, him, call in the vampire, and exorcise him, Of 'course I couldn’t do anything of that sort; but I arranged to have her son bring the young fellow to my apartment after his performance at the theatre that evening.' While waiting about an hour for them to arrive, I began to think: Who am, that I should presume to deal with such problems? And, naturally, the reaction, came that, if there are any such creatures, then it follows that there are also great powers lot good as well as for evil, and that those forces would surely be available to one who needed them for so helpful and unselfish a service as seemed to be indicated here.
Acting upon that realization, I became acutely conscious that my room was filled with a distinct thrill or vibration of an entirely different degree to any with which I am ordinarily familiar. I have had a sense of the same kind of curious thrill, though incomparably weaker, during my repeated experiences in telepathy; but this was so powerful and so persistent that the entire atmosphere of the room seemed to be super-charged with something like electricity, but inexpressibly more subtle.
Later, when the two young men arrived, the son of the F. T. S. told me that he had had a very hard time persuading his friend to come at all. In fact, he had refused pointblank to do so; and the other was about to give up in despair, when he, too, suddenly sensed those waves of power surrounding them, and, without further argument, he simply telephoned me that they were just starting . . . which they did. I received them rather curiously, but I had been given a very forceful and unmistakable suggestion to use the very words I did: “If you will enter in the Name of God, you are welcome. Let none enter otherwise.” Rather a surprising Way to welcome a stranger to one’s home, wasn’t it?
However, it seemed to have decidedly a good effect upon the young fellow, who was very nervous and very emaciated. He told me about his experiences, and I came to the conclusion that it could not be a genuine old-style vampire; not only because Leadbeater distinctly states on page 29 of the last part of his Inner Life that such visitations have never occurred in the fifth root race; but also because while the first visitation occurred three years ago, it was not until a few weeks ago, after having read about vampires, that he, himself, began to wonder whether his obsession was not of that type, and then—but not until then—he began to have the punctures and to lose weight.
Knowing how swiftly such a being would catch the suggestion from its victim’s brain, and use it to strengthen its hold upon him, and realizing (from the frequent examples of stigmata, etc.) how the subconscious mind can and does create such effects on the physical body, I concluded that the case was simply one of obsession by an earth-bound spirit of low order, which had been driven out of its body some time prior to the three year period, and which body undoubtedly had decayed long before the vampire illusion presented itself to the victim. It is my understanding that the physical body of a true vampire never decayed, but was kept freshly filled with blood from its victims. Since this creature had been trying to force its way into the young fellow ’s body for nearly three years before the vampire idea was presented to it, it seemed obvious that it was not and could not be a true vampire, but was merely an earth-bound spirit desiring desperately to renew the sensations of physical life.
Close questioning brought out the fact that the first obsession occurred after a New Year’s party at which the young fellow had become completely intoxicated, thus throwing wide open those barriers which are naturally rather weak in one of his gypsy blood and character. Subsequent obsessions had occurred most frequently— perhaps always— after he had indulged in drink to give himself false courage with which to face the night. I pointed out to him, of course, that he was giving aid to the enemy rather than to himself every time he resorted to such false courage; and pledged him absolutely to abandon the use of liquor as the first essential step to peace. I explained that neither I nor any other could help him except to help himself. Fortunately, he had been a Roman Catholic all his life. Of late, he has not been to confession or to his Church, because of an impressed idea that he must not. He had also removed his “beads” under the same suggestion, but he still carried them on his person.
I made him put them back on, and promise to wear them day and night henceforth, knowing how much his own instinctive belief in them would help him to resist his obsession. I found out that his “patron Saint” was St. Joseph, and that he hadn’t dared to pray to him for a long time. I explained how the forces for good can come to his aid through the mediation of the thought-form of so powerful a patron, to whom thousands of good Catholics have been praying for centuries, and he agreed to renew his application for direct aid from that source.
I then explained the reason why earth-bound spirits of low order try to occupy the bodies of living men, and suggested to him that he educate the creature to realize that it is for its good, as well as for his own, that he absolutely denies it entrance in the future. Because of his knowledge of Purgatorial conditions, he thoroughly understood this point, and agreed to cooperate, thus robbing his “fight” of most of the “resistance” and making it a matter of mutual understanding, without nearly so much of the elements of fear and hate entering into it. We kept at it until 2 o’clock in the morning, and then he went away very much encouraged and relieved.
I told him to come back if he must, but to make his own fight if he possibly could—as he could and can if he believes that he can. He has not found it necessary to return.. During the early stages of our interview, we were all distinctly conscious of an opposing force arguing with m e as well as with him; but this force ceased its efforts from the time I got well into an explanation of the heavenworld from which an earth-bound spirit debars itself by its own struggles to keep in contact with the physical.
I had explained that it had only to “let go” all thoughts of earth and of the lusts of flesh, and to reject such thoughts firmly and at once whenever they recurred, and it would soon fight free of the lower astral planes and find itself in the planes where its noblest, highest and purest dreams and aspirations during its earth-life would become FACTS. At that point, the opposition absolutely ceased, and the presence was completely withdrawn. Perhaps the entity was testing the truth of my “let go” advice, and found that it actually worked?
At any rate, though it will probably return to its chosen victim, the struggle is now a mutual one, and, if the young fellow will keep his pledge not to drink, if he will use the resources of his religion, and if he will combat the obsession always with the motive of mutual helpfulness in doing so, he should experience comparatively little trouble in winning to peace.
I went to bed with the idea of following him out on the astral plane and renewing the argument at closer quarters, and awoke the next morning with the clear conception that just as I had been helped to help that young fellow fight against his obsession, so could I and all of us confidently count upon help in fighting any similar recurrence of our own doubts on the subject of higher forces and invisible powers.
The powers are there; we have only to use them, but we must use them only for others.
==Publication History==
* "Vanquishing A Vampire”
* By C. H. M. (Editor Of “WORK")
* Theosophical Messenger 
* V15 N11 Apr 1928
* Edited by L. W. Rogers 
* Publisher: American Theosophical Society: Mount Morris, Ill. 
* pages (text) 241-243
* pages (pdf) 1-3
==Links==
Main Source: http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/theosophic_messenger_all/theosophical_messenger_v15_n11_apr_1928.pdf
* http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/theosophic_messenger_all/
==Citations==
APA C.H.M. (1928, April). Vanquishing A Vampire. Theosophical Messenger, 15(11), 241–243. http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/theosophic_messenger_all/theosophical_messenger_v15_n11_apr_1928.pdf. 
MLA C.H.M. “Vanquishing A Vampire.” Theosophical Messenger, Apr. 1928, pp. 241–243, iapsop.com/archive/materials/theosophic_messenger_all/theosophical_messenger_v15_n11_apr_1928.pdf. Accessed 27 Feb. 2021. 
Chicago C.H.M. “Vanquishing A Vampire.” Theosophical Messenger 15, no. 11, April 1928. http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/theosophic_messenger_all/theosophical_messenger_v15_n11_apr_1928.pdf. 
Harvard C.H.M. (1928) “Vanquishing A Vampire,” Theosophical Messenger, April, pp. 241–243. Available at: http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/theosophic_messenger_all/theosophical_messenger_v15_n11_apr_1928.pdf (Accessed: February 27, 2021). 
Vancouver C.H.M. Vanquishing A Vampire. Theosophical Messenger [Internet]. 1928Apr [cited 2021Feb27];15(11):241–3. Available from: http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/theosophic_messenger_all/theosophical_messenger_v15_n11_apr_1928.pdf
== Images ==
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