Book Title: Obsession, Passes, Counseling  ¹
Author: Herculano Pires 

Description:         

This book teaches about the Spiritist understanding of obsession, what it is, and how it is treated. 
See the Table of Contents for details.

A note about obsession, from the "Preliminary Information" intro to the book²:

Obsession is characterized by the action of inferior spirits upon the human psyche.  Kardec clarified and pointed out in his research the three degrees of an obsessive process: simple obsession, subjugation and fascination.  In the first degree, the spiritual infestation reaches the mind, causing mental disturbances; in the second degree, it extends to the centers of affectivity and of will, affecting the feelings and the psychomotor system, leading the obsessed person to manifest strange attitudes such as nervous gestures and tics; in the third degree it affects the actual conscience of the victim, unchaining hallucinatory processes.

The causes of obsession are the result of various factors, among which the most frequent are: problems of reincarnation, vicious trends, extreme egoism, excessive ambitions, aversion to certain people, hatred, feelings of revenge, frivolity, exaggerated vanity, attachment to earthly values and so on.  These dispositions of the person attract similar spirits who envelope him and are accepted by him as invisible companions.  The obsessor spirits are not the only culprits of the obsession.  Generally, the greater culpability lies in the victim.

In ancient times, the obsession was treated with violence.  The practices of exorcism, until today, present in Judaism and in some Christian faiths, are most likely to cause the so-called demon to move away in an aggressive and violent manner.  In Spiritism, the method employed is that of the gradual persuasion of the obsessor and the obsessed person.  This is what is called counseling, or the enlightenment of the spirit and of the obsessed person, under the light of the Spiritist Doctrine.  No special element is used, nor any special object.  Only prayer and persuasive, illuminating conversation are utilized.  Once enlightened, the obsessed person and the obsessing spirit are both immunized, so to speak, against new obsessive occurrences.

¹Translation of original in Portuguese
² as published in 2004 by the Spiritist Alliance for Books