After giving insight into the process by which the soul divests itself of the layers it has acquired in its journey, Hazrat Inayat Khan now speaks briefly about the phenomenon of obsession, and its more intense form, which he here calls ‘impression.’

A soul which has passed from the earth and is in the spirit world can still live on the earth in one way, and that is by obsessing another soul. Very often people have explained this idea wrongly, when they have said that a spirit takes hold of a dead body, and, entering into it, makes use of it. The body once dead is dead; it has entered upon the process of returning to its own origin. It has lost that magnetism which attracts the soul and holds it in order to allow it to function in the physical body. If the dead body had magnetism, then it would not have allowed the soul to return; it would have held it back, for it is the body which holds the soul to the earth; the soul has a pull from within which draws it continually towards its source. But there are many living dead in the good or bad sense of the words. It is in these cases that single-pointed spirit takes hold of their minds and bodies as its own instrument, using them to the best advantage; this is generally known as obsession. In point of fact there is no soul which has not experienced obsession in the true sense of the word, for there are moments in every day life when those on the other side take the souls on the earth as their medium through which to experience life on the physical plane.

Impression upon the soul is a much deeper experience than that which obsession gives; for in time the spirit which enters into the being of a person on earth makes that person entirely void of himself. In time he loses his identity, and becomes like the spirit who has obsessed him, not only in his thought, speech and action, but also in his attitude and outlook. In his habits and manners, even in his looks, he becomes like the obsessing entity.

Might one say, then is it a good thing from a mystical point of view thus to become selfless? No, this is not the way to become selfless; in this way one is robbed of the self. The mystical way to become selfless is to realize the self by unveiling it from its numberless covers which make the false ego.

To be continued…