Spirit Release - Background

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Background to the Releasing of Earthbound Spirits by David Furlong

Spirit Release or exorcism, as it is more generally known, has probably been an intrinsic part of human religious practice since the earliest of times. There are spells to protect the king from evil forces in his journey into the after world in the Ancient Egyptian pyramid texts that date from the middle of the third Millennium BC and in spell 151 of the Book of the Dead dating to c. 1500 BC we read.

"May you guide him to the fair ways, that he may smite the gang of Seth (evil beings) for you that he may fell your foes for you before the great Ennead in the great temple in Iunu and take the Great (White) Crown there before Horus lord of the nobles."

Belief in the supernatural abounded in Ancient Egypt as Dr Geraldine Pinch states:

"Angry deities, jealous ghosts, and foreign demons and sorcerers were thought to cause misfortunes such as illness, accidents, poverty and infertility. Magic provided a defence system against these ills for individuals throughout their lives."

And again:

"Since demons were thought to be attracted by foul things, attempts were sometimes made to lure them out of the patient's body with dung; at other times a sweet substance such as honey was used, to repel them."
(BBC History - Ancient Egyptian Magic.)

Winged Sundisk - symbol of protection

Biblical References
There are many references in the Gospels to Jesus and his apostles casting out demons. For example Jesus' command to his followers in Matthew 10: 7-8 states:

"And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give."

In many other cultures, both ancient and modern, there is a belief in the effects of malign spirits on the realms of the living and the need to protect against them. Throughout medieval times, within Europe, belief in demons, usually in the form of an incubus or succubus, are well documented. The earliest Christian references for these going back to St Augustine ('De Civitate Dei'- The City of God) . The infamous 'Malleus Maleficarum' by church inquisitor Heinrich Kramer published in 1486 lists exorcism as the main way to get rid of these demonic forces.

In nineteenth century French mystic Allan Kardec, the founding father of the Spiritist movement, gave new insights into the field of the spiritual journey, describing the path of Soul through a numbers of incarnations and showing how some spirits, becoming trapped in evil ways, can infect the lives of living human beings. ('Le Livre des Esprits' by Alan Kardac - Book 2 Chap 9) .

Modern Times
Moving forward in time Dr Carl Wickland, an American physician, psychologist and avid spiritualist became the first medically trained person to consider spirit possession as a contributory cause of mental illness. He developed a technique of spirit release that involved passing static electricity through the patient's head and back, in order to drive out possessing spirits. His wife Anna, in another room, would then take on the spirit in trance state to find out why it had attached itself to the patient and then together with Carl, would try to get it to move on. These accounts of "depossession" were written up in Carl's book, 'Thirty Years Among the Dead', first published in 1924.

The move by Freud and others to consider mental disturbances in terms of psychological processes and the further development of the use of organic medicine through psychiatry has meant that modern Western medicine now disavows completely any suggestion that mental distress can be caused by spirit attachment or influence.

Nevertheless within esoteric circles the concept of spirit attachment and influence continued, through the writings of Madame Blavatsky, Dion Fortune and others with these concepts eventually finding their way into healing circles through, such organisations, as the College of Healing founded in 1981.

Around the same time, in his attempt to understand the nature of evil, psychiatrist M. Scott-Peck, author of the classic book 'The Road Less Travelled', carried out exorcisms on two of his patients. He described this work in his controversial book 'Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrists Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism and Redemption'.

Around this time another American Dr Edith Fiore (see photo) had developed a system of 'spirit release' through regression techniques and she wrote up her studies in her book 'The Unquiet Dead' published in 1987. Her work inspired Dr William Baldwin, who left his dental practice and started to help patients through regression therapy, which eventually lead understanding the nature of spirit attachment and invasion and the steps that could be taken to help individuals so afflicted. He termed this process 'spirit releasement'. His work was picked up in the UK by Dr Alan Sanderson a psychiatrist working, at the time, within the National Health Service, who had become very dissatisfied with the treatments then offered to patients with mental health issues. Dr Sanderson eventually went on to found the Spirit Release Foundation in 1999, that attempted to bring together a multi-disciplinary approach to the concepts of spirit attachment and spirit invasion.

Since then a number of other organisations and practices have come to recognise the possibility of spirit involvement in health issues. This is still a complex field open to many new insights into the nature of consciousness and the development of the Soul within the body. Techniques for the release of spirits now involve either putting the client into a hypnotic trance state to communicate directly with any possessing spirits or through an intuitive mediumistic approach where the spirit is communicated with telepathically and either commanded or cajoled to leave the body.

To contact David please click here.

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Other articles in this series:
Spirit Release Background please click here.
Spirit Release in Places (Part 1) please click here.
Spirit Release in Places (Part 2) please click here.
Spirit Release in People please click here.
Why Attachments Occur please click here.

Background Reading
The following books are recommended as further information to the above article.

Links
The following links to other websites may be of interest:

College of Healing - http://www.collegeofhealing.org//
Spirit Release Foundation- http://www.spiritrelease.com/
Spirit Releasement Therapy- http://www.spiritreleasement.org/NSITE/index.html
Dr Alan Sanderson- http://www.spiritrelease.com/sandersonprofile.htm

Background Articles
The following articles are the process of development and will be added to and updated on a regular basis.

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The Soul Journey	Soul/Body Link	Health Issues	Death & Transition
The articles here explore the recent developments in understanding the journey of the soul through various incarnations as well as information about its sojourn in between lives in the spirit realms. The Soul's Journey Reincarnation	In order to experience the Soul needs to be energetically linked into the body. The articles here look at various models that explains how this might occur, providing a further insight into the Soul/mind/body link. The Soul/Body Link Soul Fragments and Retrieval	Imbalances between the Soul and the mind/body can lead to a large range of health issues including mental and psychological problems. Mental imbalances include 'Dissociative Disorders' and 'Trance States'. Causes for Attachments Electromagnetic Pollution	One of the most challenging experiences that we will all have to face is the death of the physical body. The Near Death Experience or NDE tells us what should happen and provides insights into why spirits get trapped. Death and Transition Near Death Exp.(NDE)
Trapped Souls	Psychic Issues	Spirit Attachments	Spirit Release
There appear to be many reasons why Souls fail to make a full transition and become trapped or 'earthbound' and still able to influence the physical planes. We explore here some of the issues involved. Earthbound Souls	Sensitive people can be aware of a whole range of 'subtle' energies that can cause them considerable distress. The articles here explore these various states and the way that negative energies can be deliberately created. Geopathic Stress Curses	Individuals suffering invasions or spirit attachments claim a wide variety of different types of attaching entities, in addition to normal human Souls. We look here at some of the claims that have been made. Spirit Attachments Shadow Entities	We explore the processes that can be adopted to help release trapped or 'earthbound' spirits. The articles here also considers the differences between spirits that attach to people and those that are stuck in places. Spirit Release  - Background  - Places Part1  - Places Part2  - People Background  - People  - Demonic Release Pt1  - Demonic Release Pt2

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