Page:The Great Book of Magical Art, Hindu Magic and East Indian Occultism.djvu/539

 VAMPIRISM 521

of passes round the patient, and after a time the voices ceased, and have not returned since, as far as the writer is aware.

The writer received a letter a few months ago from a French lady in London, who had heen staying in Harrogate last summer.

"When I went to Harrogate I was better, and the distressing feeling of fright I had had constantly day and night vanished for a time, but it has now assumed its sway. It begins at night when I am out of doors; it is as if I was pursued. It always comes from behind like a large wave, over my right shoulder, and when I am in my room writing, it seems as though I had someone behind me. The sensation is oppress- ing, and I feel a weight over my shoulder blades, and when people pass near me. if they do not touch me, they hurt me. It has become so uncanny that I should like to know what it is and what is to be done."

The writer himself some years ago had a similar experience. It would be between four and five o'clock one morning when he was awakened by a voice which distinctly came from within, saying, "You tvill have to come," at the same time there was an indescribable feeling as though part of himself were being forcibly torn from the body. Being interested in the phenomenon, and wondering what it might be, the writer composed himself a moment after, emphatically declaring he would not go, to see if the sensation would be repeated. It was, and very unpleasantly this time, though wide awake, and it was deemed best to throw the influence off. There was a brief struggle, during which the voice again demanded that the personality should yield, then the sensation passed.

A friend of the writer's has had a somewhat similar feeling, where during the night, if lying upon the stomach be has felt himself gripped on the shoulders behind, with pressure on the small of the back, while the shoulders would be pulled backwards. He has been awakened by the sensation and the struggle has lasted a few seconds after being awake, so that it is no nightmare. This occurred twice, and on two other occasions he distinctly felt a solid body, like a dead body beside him in bed. Florence Marryat in There is no Death relates a very gruesome story along a similar line, and people who are subject to these experiences should never sleep alone. Many cases of epilepsy are no doubt instances of entities using the physical body of the victim.

A MODERN DEMONIAC.

A case is quoted in Borderland by the late Mr. IV, T. Stead, editor of "The Revictv of Reiieii-s," which came within his own personal knowl- edge. One day in January, 1896, a young man, an officer in the British Army, came to his office and said that some time back he had taken up automatic writing. This, for the benefit of those to whom (he phrase