Is there a connection between demon and hearing voices?

i read this post from other forum and i want to chare it with member :

"""" I have been diagnosed as a schizophrenic and have been hearing voices for the best part of 3 years. These voices are a constant strain on my life, although i have learned to live with them, My first experiences Where very scary and had me feeling like i had lost my mind! i don't consider myself to be mad at all, Im just experiencing something paranormal in my opinion maybe something in a different world.
I have been searching as many of you have for the reason why these voices have came about from My psycologist and social worker who have only offered advice from a medical and scientific perspective,
They just offer treatment in the form of counciling and medication But i don't consider myself to be crazy or ill!

Recently I have been exploring thinking on a spiritual level of which i believe (I may be wrong) there my be a connection.
This came about the other day when i was watching a old film 'Ghost' with Patrick Swayze, If you remember at the start of the film Patrick (sam) died in a violent death.... (i later learned after some research that, this is the reason some ghosts are unable to cross over into another realm and become trapped in this one) .. his spirit remained, as did many others, These Ghosts are able to interact with people at the right frequency.. I don't know all the specifics there may be someone that can add to or poke holes in my theory but its just a theory Ur welcome to comment
What if there is much more to this film then we first perceived and the same principles apply in real life.""""

i believe im hearing demons and spirits. i have my theory as to why.
maybe we are chosen specially to hear them.
i know a lot of people dont want to hear that but its possibly true.
all these supposed famous psychics or "mediums" out there get popularity from what they do yet they arent supposed mentally ill. they are just supposed as to having "a gift".
whats wrong with people with supposed mental illness having that gift too? theres nothing wrong with it. we are only stigmatized.

I've been hearing voices since I was 13. I didn't know anything about schizophrenia until I went to a doctor at 18, since my parents wouldn't let me. My mom always told me they were ghost and demons. But after reading about it and going to doctors, I don't believe that's the case anymore.

hello newtus,
i see a lot of people suffer from this problems i don't see that as a gift newtus (gift = pills ) ,
newtus you can google this phrase : Journal Under Fire for Linking Schizophrenia to Demonic Possession
i hope to talk to you in chat , and give you some links and advice and you 'l see a good result by yourself

It's certainly an area that has been deeply explored by some people -

Alan Sanderson | Bringing spiritual techniques into mainstream psychiatry

A few books on the subject -

Tom Zinser - soul centered healing

The unquiet dead - By Edith Fiore

Schizophrenia or Spirit Possession
by Mr Mike Williamson

Ghosts And Earthbound Spirits: Recognise and release the spirits trapped in this world
by Linda Williamson

Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual
by William J. Baldwin, Edith Fiore

Healing Lost Souls: Releasing Unwanted Spirits from Your Body
by William J. Baldwin

Many others. Lets also not forget Shamanism.

Step away from the orthodox/mainstream, dig a bit below the surface, & there are vast areas to these experiences. i've done a lot of reading & research into a lot of different areas - spirit release, depth & transpersonal psychology, philosophy, comparative religion, consciousness studies (NDE & OBE), Esoteric & Occult areas, all sorts.

These areas can also cover -

1. Shamanic crisis
2. Awakening of Kundalini
3. Episodes of unitive consciousness (Maslow's "peak experiences")
4. Psychological renewal through return to the center (John Perry)
5. Crisis of psychic opening
6. Past-life experiences
7. Communication with spirit guides and "channeling"
8. Near-death experiences (NDEs)
9. Close encounters with UFOs and alien abduction experiences
10. Possession states
11. Alcoholism and drug addiction

Spiritual Emergencies: Understanding and Treatment of Psychospiritual Crises - Reality Sandwich

i've also worked with some highly competent spiritual healers over the past 13 years.

This is one of the more interesting documents i've come across as to what is happening in psychosis/schizophrenia from a more metaphysical perspective (links on left) -

Schizophrenia

It is still hard to come to any categorical answers/conclusions. Personally i accept the diagnosis & take the pills. i have made a lot of progress, but i also feel that there are still certain difficulties.

i don't think anyone has a categorical answer to these experiences/conditions. Best i can come up with is an integral/holistic approach & understanding - that there are the realms of the spiritual, psyche & physical. That we are mind, body & soul within environment & effected by all levels. i take a bio/psycho/social/spiritual model - i don't see things as 'either/or'. There are variables (interrelated/interdependent) on physiological/biologic, psychological/emotional, social/environmental & spiritual/transpersonal levels.

How i see it all anyway.

A good book that acknowledges the psychiatric & spiritual, by an expert in both is - 'Healing the split' by John Nelson -

Healing the Split

Good luck!

I guess me being an atheist stops me from having more detailed delusions. I'm sorry for everyone who has to deal with extra. :hug for me, it's people from the future. They tell me I'm going to discover something that destroys the future and they're trying to get me to kill myself so they don't have to because they're worried it'll mess up the future in another way. :sad

If it means anything/helps - here is my 'map' of reality, in condensed form. imo a lot of psychosis/schizophrenia concerns various phenomena at the lower astral levels.

______________________

Spirit/Psyche/Physical

Many writings discuss 7 bodies/initiations.
________________________________________

Source/God
The Spiritual Realms

Logoic
Monadic
Atmic
Buddhic
Manasic (Lower, Middle & Higher)

________________________________________

Creator/Created Worlds

Psyche/Soul -
Higher & Lower Mind

Language of Religion. Myth, Symbol, Analogy & Metaphor.

Astral (Lower, Middle & Higher)
Etheric

_______________________________________

Physical - Brain/Body - Biological Computer
Society/Culture
Family/Humanity
Nature/Cosmos

All exists within environment.

No, there is absolutely no connection between demons and hearing voices. If you are hearing voices, you need to see a professional. The professional may require you to get on medication or be hospitalized.

Please listen to their advice and not voices that are in your head, especially if they are telling you to hurt yourself or others.

My mother had schizophrenia and her voices were never kind to her.

Here is a very interesting little film on the connections between psychosis & mystical experiences -



Uploaded on 14 Feb 2012
This 18 minute advocacy film for human and spiritual ethics about mental health and well-being explores and explains the deeper relationships between psychotic and mystic experiences in human life associated with the collective psyche/subconscious mind (and being) of us all.

& a very interesting talk on Shamanism and the Evolutionary Origins of Schizophrenia -



Published on 25 Sep 2013A Video Lecture by Dr. Joseph Polimeni

This story was interesting -

http://forums.psychcentral.com/schiz...e-healing.html

I'm not excluding spirits, but I've been told I have a spiritual disease and I've been told I'm possessed by demons. Neither of those statements are constructive or helpful when you make them about others. Feel free to believe whatever you want about your own problems, but be careful what you say about other people. That's all I wanted to say as I don't think I should get too involved in this. Also, I'm speaking in general terms here... not replying to anyone in particular.

i agree. & i think it's easy for people to get torn apart by all the different understandings & approaches to these areas.

i think each individual case is different. i can appreciate a more integral view - i can see sense in some of the pro biomedical psychiatric understandings, & i can see sense in some of the more critical arguments & alternatives. i don't think that anyone is wholly right or wrong. There are elements of truth within a lot of areas.

i've been treated by the mental health system, spent close to a year in psychiatric hospital, & have spoken with many psychiatrists - i've also worked closely with alternative/spiritual healers.

i think there are varying degrees of problems across physical, psychological & spiritual areas - in my opinion. That is what personally makes sense to me. i don't see any either/or - there is stuff going on with my biology, psychology & spiritual areas - to me it's all interrelated/interdependent. Anything that exclusively overly focuses on one area to the large exclusion of the others i think is wrong.

i don't think there is a job role, training, genuine knowledge & understanding for a genuinely appropriate, integrated, comprehensive & effective approach to mental health. i don't think it currently exists - there is a whole mish mash of different people & roles, all coming from different angles & perspectives.

i think there needs to be a whole person/centred approach that takes as much of everything into account as possible - across physiological/biologic, psychological/emotional, social/environmental & spiritual/transpersonal ranges.

Just my opinion.

i also feel that there are vast ranges within mental health. Although i see it we're mind/body/soul - Maybe some people are suffering more from a spiritual dilemma of one kind or another - others more a physiological/brain problem, others their life circumstances/social difficulties, others psychological problems, & others a combination of things.

I agree and I think you said it well. And I think you're right, there needs to be a more whole person approach to sz/psychosis.

Nothing wrong in it. i think the mentally ill are usually gifted & more empathic & sensitive than others.

Sethh Farber has some interesting stuff to say on it all.

The Spiritual Gift of Madness:The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement INDIEBOUND BOOKS. - Seth Farber, Ph.D.

So too does Paris Williams -

Paris Williams, PhD | Brain Blogger

try mentaly focussing on the right jaw hinge, then focus on the top of mouth, mentally pull the jaw point away from top mouth. dont physicly pull your jaw. when you feel a click either on your jaw or roof of mouth it worked. been quiet for since lastnight after that.

Hope i'm not hijacking the thread. i do find this a very interesting subject area. i think the areas of transpersonal psychology are very interesting.

Wilson Van Dusen, a clinical psychologist, categorized his patients' hallucinations, and came to believe that the work of Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), which categorized human experience as a series of interactions with spirits, was a model for Van Dusen's observations of hallucinations.

Wilson Van Dusen: The Presence of Spirits in Madness

In an article at the John Mack Institute, Virginia Goodchild wrote -

It is possible, therefore, that the encounter experience is a contemporary form of an ancient mystical knowledge or gnosis, that is, knowledge that comes from the reality of visionary or revelatory states, that are also taking place in an actual "space" of the soul, or subtle vehicle. Such experiences also make it imperative that we expand our dichotomous worldview to include once again these other levels of reality, that in fact are by no means new, but recover an ancient multidimensionality.

Source - Transpersonal psychology - encyclopedia article - Citizendium

An amusing analogy -

Schizophrenia, Psychiatry and Mysticism

Schizophrenia, Psychiatry and Mysticism

by Richard Gosden

Schizophrenia is to mystical experience as drowning is to swimming. Psychiatry in this analogy is like an over zealous lifeguard who can't tell the difference between drowning and swimming. Everybody he sees in the water is run over by his rescue boat, knocked unconscious and hauled out with a boat hook. Most of the people rescued, swimmers and drowners alike, are crippled in the process.

The lifeguard, who can't swim himself, denies that swimming is possible and claims that the crippling is actually caused by the drowning experience rather than the rescue. This is confirmed by raucous praise for the lifeguard from many of the crippled drowners and their relatives.

The crowd of spectators on the beach are divided. A few of them can tell the difference between swimming and drowning, but most can't. The crowd is persuaded by the drowners and their relatives to support the lifeguard's tactics.

Swimmers who aren't too badly crippled and who want to go back into the water have to learn how to swim without splashing so as not to attract attention. It's important for those who know how to swim to maintain the skill so it can be passed on. Eventually everyone will have to learn to swim so we can cross to the other side.

Common sense would indicate that an ability to swim should be a prerequisite for appointment as a lifeguard. Perhaps this will happen one day.

Mystical Psychosis Jung and the Spiritual in Psychiatry

by Sandi Crain | Sciences 360

Mystical Psychosis: Picking Up Where Jung Left Off

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions"-Joel 2:28 (KJV)

"I felt like I obeyed God and there will be good out of this. . . I feel like He will reveal His power and they will be raised up. They will become alive again"-Deanna Laney after she stoned two of her children to death because God told her to.

"So habitual is the trance of ordinary life that one could say that human beings are a race that sleeps and awakens, but does not awaken fully. Because the half-awake is sufficient for the task we customarily do, few of us are aware of the dysfunction of our condition"-Arthur J. Deikman.

In the 1970s, Arthur Deikman (a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco) introduced the term "mystical psychosis" to the psychiatric world. Himself a student of Zen, Sufism, and the Human Potential Movement of the 1960s, he sought to understand those who have experiences similar to mystical experiences but yet are not socially acceptable. The experience may be a psychotic episode brought on by extreme stress or substance abuse but may not be pathological. This could mean that the person guilty of killing because God told them to do it may never be tempted to do it again once the trigger for this altered state of consciousness is eliminated or at least understood by the subject who experienced it.

This particular field of research is not without precedence. Carl Jung, one of the father's of modern psychiatry, had no problem accepting mystical experiences in his work. As his peer and rival Sigmund Freud was exploring the psycho-sexual nature of humanity, Jung was delving into the spiritual and paranormal aspects of human nature. Jung, himself, was no stranger to unexplained phenomena. As a young man he was convinced his own stress and temperament caused a dining room table to crack down the middle (psycho-kinetic energy). And, throughout his life he experienced visions, premonitions, and telepathic communications. Although he didn't speak much about it until his career was well established, the spiritual and paranormal were always in his thoughts when he psychoanalyzed patients. So much so that he suspected those we consider autistic are in multiple dimensions at one time rather than fully in the 3-D physical world most of us are accustomed to.

Arthur Deikman and his view of "mystical psychosis" is a step forward from Jung's point of view. In a society in which Freud's animalistic view of human nature dominates, Deikman's work can be seen as courageous. We've been conditioned to believe that there is no unseen spiritual world. A person who has a truly mystical experience is obviously insane so why bother trying to understand that the person who thinks God told them to hurt someone might just be having an isolated spiritual breakdown?

Fortunately, the works of those like Jung and Deikman are respected in certain psychiatric circles. In 2003, the Dalai Lama and a group of Buddhist monks shared thoughts and spiritual expertise with neuroscientists and psychologists at MIT. Both groups walked away understanding more about the human mind. And, just this year (2009), The Center for Mystical Psychosis, founded by Rob Sacco, seeks to help others deal with the mystical psychotic experiences in their lives. In the exact words from their website, "psychiatrists can no longer afford to neglect the importance of mystical experiences to their patient's lives".

"True spirituality-the authentic religious journey-can never be an escape from life's problems. God, the sacred center at the source of all authentic spiritual journeys, must be met in the midst of life, not in the escape from life. Today we live in a global age-and age of planetary exploration and communications and new global interdependencies. Our spiritual journey-our search for life in God-must be worked out now in a global context, in the midst of global crises and global community. Our spirituality must be a global spirituality"-Carl Jung.

Dr. Arthur Deikman

Mysticism and Psychosis

Early in my psychiatric career, while treating psychotic patients who had experiences with powerful religious imagery, I started wondering whether the great mystics of the past would have been considered the psychotic patients of the present, and whether the patients I was caring for would have been considered great saints in the past. Is the mystic psychotic? Is the psychotic patient a misunderstood mystic?
When comparing the following two accounts, can you distinguish which one is a description of a psychotic episode and which one a mystical experience?

1

All at once, without warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame-colored cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere close by in that great city; the next, I knew that the fire was within myself. Directly afterward there came upon me a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe. Among other things, I did not merely come to believe, but I saw that the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is, on the contrary, a living Presence; I became conscious in myself of eternal life, but a consciousness that I possessed eternal life then; I saw that all men are immortal; that the cosmic order is such that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all; that the foundation principle of the world, of all the worlds, is what we call love, and the happiness of each and all is in the long run absolutely certain.1

2

From the first, the experience seemed to me to be holy. What I saw was the Power of Love—the name came to me at once—the Power that I knew somehow to have made all the universes, past, present and to come; to be utterly infinite, an infinity of infinities, to have conquered the Power of Hate, its opposite, and thus created the sun, the moon, the planets, the earth, light, life, joy and peace, never ending…. In that peace I felt utterly and completely forgiven, relieved from all burden of sin. The whole infinity seemed to open up before me, and during the weeks and months that followed I passed through experiences which are virtually indescribable. The complete transformation of “reality” transported me as it were into the Kingdom of Heaven. I feel so close to God, so inspired by His Spirit, that in a sense I am God. I see the future, plan the Universe, save mankind; I am utterly and completely immortal; I am even male and female. The whole Universe, animate and inanimate, past, present and future is within me; all things are possible.2

Similarities

It is clear to me that psychotic and mystical experiences have many characteristics in common.

Intense subjectivity. The person is totally focused inwardly. There is a compelling attraction to what is happening inside so that the outside world and daily ordinary aspects of life seem irrelevant. The external world is only relevant to the extent that it reflects the profound subjective experience the person is going through.

Sense of noesis. Something very important is happening to the person. In both types of experiences, the person’s attention is riveted with a sense that an important message or knowledge is being discovered.

Ineffable quality. Both psychosis and mystical experience are very intense situations which the person has trouble putting into words. One simply cannot communicate all the richness and intensity encountered. Both types of experience transcend the rational and usual, ordinary way of experiencing life.

Loss of self-object boundaries. Both experiences are often accompanied by a loss of ego boundaries. One experiences a sense of oneness with others, nature, the universe as a whole. New connections between oneself and the external world are discovered. The clear boundaries of inside (self) and outside (other) are blurred. There is an expansion in the sense of self and how one defines oneself.

Distortion of time sense. In both situations, the linear sense of time (past—present—future) is lost, with the present appearing as the only reality. The intensity of the experience in the present gives the sense that it is eternal, lasting forever.

Perceptual changes. Heightened perceptions in all sensory modalities, synesthesias and hallucinatory phenomena (especially visual and auditory) are very common.

Intense affective experiences. Both involve intense emotions. Great ecstasy and great moments of terror are often described. The more negative affective experiences tend to be more common in psychosis, but they can be experienced in either.

Attempt at renewal and healing. The mystical experience involves an expansion of one’s present state of consciousness. It is the attempt of the psyche to transcend a limited identification of self. It is the psyche’s effort to break the boundaries of the personality totally trapped in the ego. The mystic sees his/her connection with all of life, and through that new vision expands his/her identity and sense of self. The mystical experiences heal the narrow, limited concept of the self, transforming that smallness into a being more deeply connected with all of life.

Psychosis is also an attempt at renewal and healing. The person has reached an impasse in his/her psychological life, and the only way it can be resolved is through such a drastic transformation. John Percy, in The Far Side of Madness,3 talks about psychosis as an attempt of the psyche to borrow the energy and images of the archetypal layer in the unconscious to heal a broken sense of self. He describes how in acute psychosis the individual goes through a process of death, rebirth and renewal symbolically to heal him/herself.

Altered states of consciousness appear after a period of preparation or restlessness followed by a sudden realization. Evelyn Underhill describes this progression from preparation to sudden mystical experience in her book Mysticism.4 Malcolm Bowers, in Retreat from Sanity,5 describes this process of increased anxiety, altered states and sudden psychotic realization in the psychotic patient. Peter Buckley explains the similarity in the altered states of consciousness in mysticism and psychosis by “the possibility that there is a limited repertoire of response within the central nervous system for such altered state experiences even though the precipitants for entering this altered state may be extremely different.”6

Differences

Even though there are many similarities between the phenomenology and subjective experiences of mysticism and psychosis, there are also some major differences. As Ram Dass said in a conference on Buddhism and Psychotherapy: “The psychotic brother thinks he is Jesus Christ and only he. I think I’m Jesus Christ, and everyone else too.”

Attachment to the world. The mystic, through practices of self-control, concentration and study, gradually reduces his/her attachment to the world. The mystic sees the material world as transitory and values that which he/she perceives as more permanent, eternal.

The psychotic also detaches from the world in that he/she focuses on inner experiences to the exclusion of socially established rules of behavior. But the psychotic is also highly subjected to profound and intense reactions to whatever is in front of him/her. His/her ego boundaries are easily broken down, and because of the incapacity to control emotions, it is easy for the psychotic to shift from one state to another very quickly, leaving the patient with a disruption of any sense of continuity in his/her sense of self and the world.

Self-image. The mystic reduces his/her sense of self to a minimum. The mystic wants to be an infinitesimal point of consciousness, with the smallest possible ego, so that he/she can perceive life in the least distorted way. The personality is seen as a barrier, a filter that does not allow one’s consciousness to perceive life in its truest form. Humility before the enormity of the universe is a common attitude in the mystic.

The psychotic sees him/herself as omnipotent and omniscient. There is a great increase in self-centeredness, with a feeling of being all-important. He/she is the center of the world, and only he/she is sufficiently important to matter.

Ego-identity is shed by the mystic. He/she works to transcend the smallness of ego and tries to find a more expansive sense of self. The psychotic has never acquired a strong ego identity and often clings to whatever fragments he or she can find of him/herself.

Serenity increases in the mystic through detachment to the temporal and transient. The mystic identifies with the eternal, that which is most sacred and valuable. In that deep identification, the mystic finds peace and inner tranquility. The psychotic, however, finds little serenity in his/her life. The emotional and mental life of the psychotic is completely fragmented: fear and lack of control of one’s mind are the predominant states.

Change is welcomed by the mystic, who is open to new possibilities. The psychotic person tends to reject change, for anything new brings with it a whole set of circumstances to learn to deal with. This frightens the psychotic patient since he/she has little ego-identity or inner strength with which to meet the new situation.

Thought processes are not disrupted in the mystical experience. In the psychotic experience thinking usually becomes fragmented and disordered.

Aggressive or paranoid elements are found exclusively in the psychotic experience, sometimes to the point of being impossible to control.

Hallucinatory experiences tend to be visual in nature for the mystic. Often these are described as visions of light, superior beings and beautiful panoramic phenomena of a most positive nature. The psychotic tends more often to experience auditory hallucinations, which are usually negative and frightening because they are projected, unacceptable thoughts that person has and can no longer keep buried in the unconscious.

Limited in time characterizes the mystical experience. It is usually short-lived, but it always leaves an intense impression upon the memory and has a profound impact on the person who experiences it. It leaves one with a new sense of oneself and the world.

Psychosis can become a chronic condition.

The consequence of the experience is the most important difference between mysticism and psychosis, and I believe that it often is the only way to truly differentiate between the two.

The mystical experience leaves the mystic more connected and involved in the world. He/she expands his/her capacity to love and to serve. The mystic becomes more appreciative of the beauty and the miracle of life. The mystical experience leaves the individual with a feeling of reverence for all life, embracing every aspect of life and death as sacred.

Psychosis unfortunately most often leaves the person more self-centered. It narrows his/her possibilities of connection with the world because the psychotic needs to protect him/herself from the anxiety that such a connection produces. The psychotic reduces his/her capacity to love because he/she cannot forget him/herself. The psychotic spends so much energy on survival that there is little psychic energy left for more.
There are times when it is very difficult to know what it is that a person is going through, and it is only the result of the experience which clarifies retrospectively what it was.

Most importantly, I hope this discussion will make us more sensitive to the personal, subjective experience of others. We need to remain open and respectful, without judgment, helping the psychotic to heal and the mystic to live fully all the possibilities latent in the human soul.

References:

1. Burke’s description of his mystical experience as quoted in: William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience. Macmillan Publishing Co., 1902, Collier Book Edition, 1961, pp. 313-314.

2. John Custance’s description of his psychotic experiences as quoted in: Peter Buckley, “Mystical Experience and Schizophrenia.” Schizophrenia Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1981, p. 517.

3. John Perry, The Far Side of Madness. Englewood, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1974.

4. Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1955.

5. Malcolm Bowers, Retreat from Sanity. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973.

6. Buckley, p. 521.

This article was originally published in Seeds of Unfolding, Vol. VI, No. 4, Fall 1989. It is one of a number of papers written by Dr. Tomás Agosin, a psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and a founding member of Cafh in New York. Dr. Agosin died in 1991.

Very interesting, apotheosis! All of my psychoses were spiritual in nature. I've never been content with calling it psychosis. I had to stop reading, however... afraid of being triggered. But I will read the rest too maybe tomorrow, since I really liked it.

Thank you. As i said above - i don't think there is an either/or to it all. i think the term 'mystical psychosis' is of some use - but language is so limited.

People are individual & unique - & i think there is a vast range of stuff going on within these experiences/conditions.

its all simulated, i can break the brain connections, the sound is gone for a whilewhen i do, its brain adapting and sound/tactile influence.

I'm atheist, so that simplifies things a bit, but sometimes I question whether "we" are mutants with special powers that evolution picked, and eventually we will be the majority. My sister, who is also schizoaffective, believes it's demons inhabiting her body (and mine).

Another very good book is -

Spirit Release: A Practical Handbook by Sue Allen.

"Spirit Release" covers psychic attack, curses, witchcraft, spirit attachment, possession, soul retrieval, haunting, soul rescue, deliverance, exorcism and others. The term is used by healers and psychics of all religions and traditions to define the work they do in releasing and rescuing entities found with people, on land, in buildings and objects which are then redirected to somewhere more appropriate. This comprehensive guide has been developed over many years and used as course material in the College of Psychic Studies in London. Taking a responsible and careful approach to the subject, it stresses that the process should be carried out in a compassionate way, without blame or judgment of the spirit or of the individual who is seeking help."