In recent years, according to the well-known Russian researcher of anomalous phenomena Yu. A. Fomin, mass practice of spiritualism has become threatening
Yuri Aleksandrovich was one of the first to draw attention to the danger for our society of the consequences of an amateur enthusiasm for extrasensory perception, spiritualism and other related activities, since they are associated with manifestations of the open personality effect that are dangerous to health and even life. It means the openness of a special extracellular informational and administrative structure of a person to the effect of a similar structure of the so-called counterparty; both the living and the deceased can act as the latter.
Since the ability to resist such influences is different for different people, a significant part of society is potentially not protected from influence from counterparties, for example, in the person of individuals and groups with developed abilities to influence at a distance. The information and administrative structures of such unprotected people are to one degree or another open to outside, alien influence from the counterparty. Such openness can arise spontaneously - in this case, it sometimes manifests itself in the form of obsession, but more often it is formed in the course of spiritualistic sessions and amateur extrasensory perceptions, healing.
Based on his more than forty years of experience in the study of spiritualism and its negative consequences, Yu. A. Fomin pays special attention to the fact that those who consciously engage in spiritualistic contacts often become completely dependent on the counterparty: they gradually lose the ability to soberly evaluate the information received, begin to limitlessly to it. believe, unconditionally follow all commands and instructions. Sometimes it ends in tragedies: murders, suicides, deaths on dates predetermined by the counterparty. “We have had to deal with similar tragedies more than once,” writes Yuri Alexandrovich in the book “Knowledge of the Mystery” (Moscow, 1995).
Spiritualism, in its modern understanding as a public way of communicating with the dead, in 1998 turned one and a half century. But the art of calling the dead was known to the ancients. They also had to be the first to learn from their own experience what tragic consequences it can lead to. Here is what is written about this in the book "Spiritualism before the Judgment of Science, Society and Religion" (St. Petersburg, 1914); VP Bykov, for almost three decades, the most ardent champion of spiritualism, then its most implacable opponent, narrates: “The very first spirit, the very first evoker of the spirit, Tsar Saul, was the very first suicide. “For his iniquity, which he did before the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord and turned to the sorceress with a question, and did not seek the Lord. For this He killed him and handed over the kingdom to David, the son of Jesse, "- says the word of God."
Almira Bezeli, a thirteen-year-old American woman, and her young brother, may have been the first victims of seances. Almira was brought to trial in October 1851 on charges of murder. She was a knocking medium, and the spirit tapped out to her the order to kill her brother.
In the book The Light and Shadows of Spiritualism (London, 1877), D. D. Hume, the most prominent medium in the history of mankind, writes about the suicides caused by the practice of spiritualism: with spiritualism. Even in America, the number of such victims is low. Note that the great medium, being one of the most consistent defenders of the ideas of spiritualism, nevertheless recognized the fact of spiritualistic suicides.
Known for that time cases of suicide are cited by the irreconcilable critic of spiritualism V. P. Bykov. He writes: “No, spiritualism does not save you from suicide. On the contrary, in Spiritualism and among Spiritualists there are extremely many suicides, both physical and moral. I have not particularly long ago begun to check this circumstance, and already now I have on hand only in the last five or six years quite a few cases of physical suicide among spiritualists, and there is nothing to say about moral ones. There will be no mistake if I say that the very entry into the ranks of the Spiritualists is already suicide. And this is with the strictest preservation of these facts in a friendly spiritualistic family about this.
So, in 1910, a former spirit and occultist, a member of many spiritualistic circles, including ours, a former novice of the Moscow Chudov Monastery, V. E. Yakunichev, committed suicide by poisoning himself with cyanide potassium. In 1908, the girl V. I. Sh., 45-46 years old, who was fond of spiritualism, committed suicide in St. Petersburg.
In 1911, a student of Moscow University M. who had been engaged in spiritualism for many years tried to commit suicide (through poisoning). In the same year, a very famous spiritualist V. V. S died, persistently refusing all medicines and even inviting doctors, deliberately creating conditions for himself lives that led her to exhaustion, and then to fleeting consumption. In early 1914, a spirit girl in St. Petersburg attempted suicide. Finally, a few years ago, the former chairman of the Petersburg spiritualistic circle O. Yu. Stano shot himself in the temple."
VP Bykov concludes the topic of spiritualistic suicides with the following words: “The above is only a small part of the facts that are known to me personally. And what a mass of those who undoubtedly committed suicide under the influence of entangling spirits … what a mass of suicides were victims of "spiritualistic darkness" and "spiritual marriages based on the theory of reincarnation"; what a mass of individuals who, on the advice of the spirits, wishing to speed up their reincarnation to please them, took with them the secret of spiritualistic experiences. It is shrouded in the darkness of deep obscurity."
The critic of spiritualism V. P. Bykov also cites a case of a murder committed at the instigation of a counterparty. Here is what he writes about this: “In one circle, for many years, the spirit of the late surgeon II Pirogov was manifested, who, if he was asked a question about the illness of any member of the circle or from persons close to them, gave amazing the results of the medication. And everyone believed him so much that it never occurred to anyone to doubt the authenticity of the spirit and the correctness of the medicine.
But now a three-year-old child of one of the main members of the circle falls ill with an upset stomach. "Pirogov" prescribes calomel and to quench his thirst - drinking from hydrochloric acid.
The child died. When they began to look for the reasons, it turned out that the combination of calomel with hydrochloric acid gives mercuric chloride. The child was poisoned.
It is in no way to suspect a medium in this case, since this person was careful in everything to scrupulousness, he loved this child very much and in no way could take on such a heavy responsibility."
After the events of 1917, the enthusiasm for spiritualism in Russia began to decline sharply. The undoubted merit of the ideology that prevailed in our country and was legally abolished in 1991 was that the majority of the country's population for more than seven decades practically did not remember spiritualism, but remembered it immediately after the ban was lifted. I am referring to a case that was widely reported in the press in the same 1991: four schoolchildren between the ages of fourteen and sixteen killed their classmate. They brought her to the riverbank, tied her up, inflicted mortal wounds and collected the leaked blood. Then they drank the blood and hid the body of the murdered woman. Soon the criminals were found. During the investigation, it turned out that they had been practicing spiritualistic seances for a long time: they talked with spirits, asked questions, received answers,more and more carried away and imperceptibly falling into complete dependence on the counterparty. After a while, a "man in black" appeared to them at a seance, ordering to kill an Orthodox girl and drink her blood. They were no longer able to disobey the terrible order …
In the "blessed" Western world, spiritualism continued to reap its deadly harvest. So, in 1987, according to the journal "Yu. S. News and World Report”, a medium from Colorado (USA) told a woman who was keen on spiritualism that she could be together with the object of her adoration - a married man not in this, but only in the next world. To speed up the onset of the desired time of joint afterlife living, the lady killed her lover. Then she committed suicide.
In all the cases cited, the tragic outcome was the result of a deliberate, conscious conversion to spiritualism: a person who was seduced by his miracles, real or imaginary, was increasingly drawn into some unnatural, downright painful charm experienced in the process of spiritualistic contact. Then there was complete openness to alien influence, when, notes Yu. A. Fomin, people lost the ability to think reasonably and logically, performed absurd acts, were in some kind of detached state all the time, they lost interest in their surroundings; behavioral and worldview features made them look like a zombie man. Then there was retribution.
However, Yuri Alexandrovich points out, such states are far from always associated with deliberate actions: “The same effects can manifest themselves spontaneously, when a person not only does not seek contact, but does not even suspect about this possibility. Such people are said to "hear voices." At such stages of spiritualistic contacts, other phenomena can occur, for example, hallucinations, and this effect can manifest itself even with open eyes, and in some cases, a provoked poltergeist is observed in the form of extraneous sounds, squeaks and even spontaneous movements of objects.
Openness to influences alien to a person is especially enhanced in cases of so-called demonic content. For example, according to the Canadian newspaper "Sun", in one of the small towns of Italy, during an exorcism (a ritual of casting out demons) in 1991, the priest Guntano Vigliotta was killed. 'He was asked to exorcise the devil from a fifteen-year-old girl whose mother and grandmother suspected her of intercourse with evil spirits. Wigliott, as expected, asked Bishop Franco Stesa for permission to conduct a session of exorcism. But he was refused because of his insufficient experience in this dangerous business. The lack of sanction did not stop the priest. He decided to carry out the ritual at all costs and entered the house of the unfortunate girl with a cross and a Bible. The session lasted two hours.
When the girl's mother entered the room where the seance was taking place, she found there a priest tortured with inhuman, extraordinary cruelty and strength. "His body was literally torn to pieces!" - declared the bishop. Immediately after the incident, the girl from whom the demon was expelled admitted: “During the session, I heard some incomprehensible voice utter the same phrase:“My name is the Devourer!”The girl remembers in what agony the priest was dying, but doesn't know how it happened.
Thus, the "open personality effect" can manifest itself involuntarily and in an extremely cruel form. The victim of such "openness", having trusted an unknown counterparty, becomes an obedient executor of his will, unaware of who the "executor" really is.
I. Vinokurov
"The mysterious world of anomalous phenomena" 2004.
