Next I am going to describe another group of entities existing in the mental sphere, namely the group of the phantoms or phantasms. The difference between a larva and a phantasm is as follows:
A larva is quite unconsciously adopting a shape in the mental sphere, appropriate to the motive of the single or repeated psychic emotion, whereas a phantom accepts a certain form originating in the fantasy of Man.
Exactly in the same way as it happens to be with the larvae, the phantom is likewise reinforced, revived and animated by the repeated evocation of the picture, regardless of whatever the matter might be, and it will be capable of influencing not only the mental or astral plane, but also the material level.
Two examples may serve to illustrate this topic:
A very remarkable example is the so-called magick persecution mania that I shall describe from two certainpoints of view, with reference to the phantoms.
There are certain human beings with an innate scowl or with demoniacal features, and whose outward appearance consequently gives the impression of black magicians, but who probably haven’t got the faintest idea of any human science, to say nothing at all of magic.
It is sufficient for any easily suggestible, emotionally excitable or rather conceited person to meet with such a type of man, whether in business or in personal concern, and our “test subject”, as we shall call it, will instantly have the sensation of a strong dislike and antipathy towards the antagonist.
It can happen that our type is exhibiting a whimsical behavior without wanting to do so or even knowing about it. The first thought entering the test subject’s mind will be that he is facing a black magician.
Maybe, for some reason or other, this test person is to thinking too highly of this type of man, and the first step toward auto suggestion has already been done.
Sooner or later, small awkward everyday incidents will never be cleared up, but the blame for them will be set on our type of man. From now on, the attention is stirred up, one is watching oneself, and the picture of the “type” becomes more distinct. Already one begins to feel, persecuted.
The eyes grow more glittering, his appearance reveals itself in dreams, the picture becomes more vivid and eventually emerges even in broad daylight. Finally one constantly lives under the impression of being persecuted at every turn.
With the help of a very lively imagination, the picture can be condensed to such a degree that it becomes visible even to other similarly sensitive persons.
Feeling persecuted in this manner, with the picture continually working on his mind, our test subject may be argued into anything, even the worst.
He looks for help, begins to pray, and does his best to scare away this terrible influence; he gets a nervous breakdown, gradually becomes insane, and ends up by committing suicide or else in a mental hospital for the rest of his life.
The phantom has fulfilled its task.
How terrific is the shock, however, if such a spirit must convince itself in the mental sphere that it is committing a well-organized magic suicide! What a bitter disappointment! Our “type-man” of course has not the faintest idea of what happened and will never realize that he was nothing but a means to an end.
His face and his conduct were only the form, the pattern from which our test subject created the destructive being, the phantom whose victim he became in the end. Such and similar sad examples happen more frequently than you would believe, sometimes faster, more drastically, in other cases more slowly, furtively, insidiously.
But should you dare to tell the persecuted person the truth, he would never believe it because the phantom knows well how to hinder its victims from escaping.
If the guiding hand of Divine Providence leads such an unhappy persecuted person to a genuine magician who finds out the phantom’s trickery, he will have a very difficult task to convince the victim, to lead him to the right path, and to teach him a different, normal mode of thinking.
At certain times, especially if the victim is under the spell of a phantom, the helper will have to interfere very firmly indeed, now and again, even drastically to restore the mental balance of the individual.
The second example shows the same occurrence but with a different underlying motive:
Here we have to deal with a phantom of eroticism: the birth of such a phantom – if one may use the expression of birth at all – takes place in the face, the beautiful body of a living person, sometimes only a photo, a pornographic illustration or something similar with the purpose of provoking the lust, the sexual instinct, regardless of the person belonging to the female or male sex.
Provided anyone being in love, having no opportunity at all of satisfying his personal longing, the stronger and more vehement this yearning will grow, and at the same time the phantom’s insinuations will become stronger, because it is thriving entirely on thoughts of yearning.
The more the concerned person tries to resist this unsatisfied love, the more obtrusive the phantom will become. At first it will turn up in dreams and allow is victim to revel in the most delightful transport of love.
A little later it will provoke the sexual instinct and allow sexual intercourse in the victim’s dreams.
The pollutions produced in this way help the phantom to become denser and to influence the victim more and more, because the sperm represents the vital power that the phantom is sucking up like a vampire.
The point in question here is not the material sperm, but the animal vital power accumulated in the sperm. The victim is losing the ground under his feet, his willpower is diminishing, and the phantom gradually wins the upper hand.
If fate is not so kind to such a one as to have him enlightened in good time and to find the right distraction for him, the phantom’s mode of action will result in more dangerous effects.
The person becomes confused, stops eating, the nerves are over-excited and such like.
The love phantom can be condensed to such a degree by unsatisfied passion that it can adopt bodily forms, seducing his victim to onanism and other artificial stimulation of the genital organs. Thousands of people have fallen victims of phantoms by committing suicide as the result of disappointment in love or unsatisfied passions.
This problem recalls the memory of true occurrences of the medieval succubi and the trials for witchcraft connected therewith. A very dangerous pleasure indeed!
In the light of the two foregoing instances, the magician may observe the activity of the phantasms, and he will be able to form such specters himself. But do not forget: sooner or later, he always will run the risk of being influenced or mastered by them.
He knows what is happening in the average individual, and how to produce these phantasms consciously in the magic way, but never will he be induced to execute such practices himself, always remembering the magic sentence: “Love is the love, but love under a strong will.”
There is one theme left to be described, that of the phantasms or shadows.
Phantasms are animate presentations of people already deceased. I will pay particular attention to this theme to avoid many errors and enable everyone to sift the chaff from the wheat.
As soon as a human being leaves behind the mortal frame, it is at once in the fourth state of aggregation, usually called the “world beyond”.
Without any mediating substance, it is impossible for a being to operate on our tridimensional sphere, just as a fish cannot swim without water. The same thing prevails upon beings already passed away to the world beyond.
Remembering, praising, mourning the deceased, any memory of or tribute to them will create and enliven imaginary pictures of the dead, which as a result of frequent repetition have a rather long duration of life.
We call these pictures, created by the living ones, phantoms. It is this kind of phantom that manifest themselves in great numbers to the so-called spiritualists, evokers, diviners, etc.
The spooks and hobgoblins also are nothing else but phantoms preserving, condensing and thriving on the affection and attachment of the bereaved ones, as it happens in the case of the shadows.
This can be stated without difficulty by citing a being that manifests itself in different places at the same minute at once through so called mediums, which is nothing but a manifestation of the dead person’s phantom, because phantoms can be created by the hundreds.
It is very sad that these phantoms always are mistaken for the real dead person by the spiritualistic mediums. A lot of mischief, self-deception, and fraud is carried out in this line.
One can observe, for instance, that one of the mediums is communicating with a famous leader or general, a second one with an artist, another with a saint, in a different place with a pharaoh, and immediately again with an angel.
Therefore it is not at all surprising that this particular field of knowledge will meet with a host of opponents and mockers, because of its amount of self-deception.
No wonder that a phantom has such a strong instinct of self-preservation as to present itself as a vampire to the medium or the whole circle, and indeed becomes fatal to the neighborhood as well.
Of course, all this does not mean that a genuine magician who masters the fourth state of aggregation, the akasa principle, would not be able to communicate with a deceased person or with an intellect that is not yet embodied.
I have already quoted the practice in the chapter about mediumistic writing.
Apart from that, any magician is able to forma housing, a shape, with the help of the imagination, transfer it into the fourth state of aggregation, and to persuade or even to force the true, desired being to enter this form and manifest itself to the external world.
This practice belongs to the field of necromancy or conjuring magic and has nothing at all to do with the generally known spiritualism.
The genuine magician will use this practice only in extreme cases, and he will not evoke a being away from its sphere, because anything a being of the fourth state of aggregation has to say or to fulfill in the material or astral world can be achieved likewise by the magician himself through his maturity.
My 2c
