68 OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH & HEALING
are well known. The atoms of the Western body have
been highly sensitized in the ordinary course of
evolution and the exercises which may be used with
impunity by an Eastern person, whose body is not so
highly sensitized, will cause the atoms of the Western
body to run riot. It is extremely difficult to bring them
into proper repose again.
Mediumship
Where a person becomes a medium for a
disembodied Spirit which enters the body, as in the
case of the trance medium where it takes possession of
the body and uses it as the owner might do, there is
little if any harm done, provided the Spirit control does
not abuse his privilege. In fact, there are some cases
where Spirit controls have a better idea of caring for a
body than the owner himself, and may sometimes
improve the health. But Spirits of a high ethical nature
do not usually control a medium, it is rather
earthbound and low Spirits such as Indians and others
of a like nature who obtain a control over mediumistic
persons, and when in possession of the body they may
use it to gratify their low passions for drink and sex.
Thus they cause a disturbance to the system and a
deterioration of the instrument.
In the case of the materializing medium, we may
say that the influence is always injurious. The
materializing Spirit entrances the victim and then
draws the ether of the vital body out through the
spleen, for the difference between the materializing
medium and the ordinary person is the fact that the
connection between the vital body and the dense body
is exceedingly lax, so that it is possible to withdraw