SPECIFIC CAUSES OF DISEASE 69this vital body to a very great extent. The vital body is
the vehicle whereby the solar currents which give us
vitality are specialized. Deprived of the vitalizing
principle, the body of the medium at the time of the
materialization sometimes shrinks to almost one-half
its usual size; the flesh becomes flabby and the spark
of life burns very low. When the seance is over and the
vital body replaced, the medium is awakened and in
normal consciousness. He then experiences a feeling of
the most terrible exhaustion and sometimes,
unfortunately, resorts to drink to revive the vital
forces. In that case, of course, the health will very soon
suffer and the medium will become a total wreck. At
any rate, mediumship should be avoided, for apart
from this danger to the instrument there are other and
far more serious considerations in connection with the
more subtle bodies, and particularly in connection with
the after-death state.
Obsession
Obsession is a state where a discarnate Spirit has
taken permanent possession of the body of someone
after dispossessing the owner. But sometimes people
who have formed the habit of drunkenness or some
other low vice seek to excuse themselves by claiming
to be obsessed. Wherever a person makes that
statement concerning himself, one may nearly always
be sure that it is nothing but an excuse, for a thief who
has stolen something here in the material world does
not go about and tell people of his theft, neither does
an obsessing entity go around proclaiming the fact. It
is very certain that such an entity does not care what is
thought about the man whose body he has stolen, so