Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self-Defense – Part III

Another way that a paranormal attack can manifest is by smell. Usually, it’s an odor of decomposing flesh that comes and goes, but is noticeable by psychic and non-psychic alike. Occasionally, slime may be present, as though a platoon of slugs had oozed through the area, and sometimes there are slimy foot or hoof prints. If it has been snowing near the scene of the attack, one might see footprints appearing out of nowhere, and ending abruptly.

One sign of weak astral incursion is referred to as the “astral bell”. Sometimes it’s just a click, but often it sounds like a wine glass being lightly struck by a piece of silverware. Such a phenomenon may just be something unseen that wants to speak with someone in the room, but if it occurs at the same time as any attack-like symptoms, then one should be wary. If elemental spirits are involved, then there might be something like a conflagration that happens out of the blue. Poltergeists are another well-known form of attack.

Psychic attackers manage to do all these things by means of telepathic suggestion. The goal is to get at the victim’s subconscious. Dion Fortune likens it to the difference between ringing the doorbell in the standard way versus prying up a floorboard and manipulating the doorbell wiring. Both methods cause the doorbell to ring. Communicating with the subconscious is very like communicating with a toddler. When you say, “Don’t jump on the stairs,” to a toddler, the toddler doesn’t hear the “don’t” because toddlers’ brains just aren’t wired that way; they can only process positive commands, and immediately turn them into inner images – such as jumping down the stairs! (Much grief in the raising of children could be avoided if more parents understood this fact.) The subconscious, being essentially preverbal, responds to imagery and emotion. This is why, when working magic, part of the process is to create a mental picture of the desired end result.

In Fortune’s day, one method of subconscious contact that had jumped from the occult to the scientific realm – and into increasingly popular awareness – was hypnosis. One of the reasons she wrote the book was her concern over the potential abuse of the techniques of hypnosis, abuse that she herself had experienced at the hands of her first employer. What ultimately saved Dion Fortune was her own good sense, her “higher self”, her employer ceasing to be subtle and, finally, removal from the situation.

To be continued…