Draft of a spiritist explanation of sleep paralysis

"Nightmare" by Johann Heirich Füssli (1741-1825).

To know the effects of this unseen force that dominates and subjugates us despite our will would mean possessing the key to many issues, as well as answers for many ignored occurrences. If the consequences can be terrible, isn't recognizing the source of evil a way to protect ourselves from it, just as understanding the qualities of electricity gave us the ability to mitigate the disastrous effects of lightning? (A. Kardec, [6])

The scene is one of a delightful Saturday afternoon. I seek afternoon repose to recoup from the week's exhaustion. Sleep, however, does not come in the usual way. Just before waking up, I begin to notice everything around me. Through half-closed eyes, I observe the room's familiar decor. Panic and despair overtake me, and I am unable to rise. I hear the voices of distant family members who are aware I am asleep. I try to turn my head, but what a horrible surprise! It is made of lead. I try to raise my arm over my abdomen, but it seems like it's turned to concrete. I tried to turn my arm and torso as if I manipulated tools, not a body. How long did I stay in this state? I can't say, but when I finally wake up, for reasons I don't understand, I feel like I've returned to my own body, which gives me a sense of comfort. I just had sleep paralysis.

How many times have I experienced it? Probably three times in my life I guess. The so-called "sleep paralysis" is an uncommon event in a person's life, but it is relatively common in the population. My personal experience described above is by no means typical. In addition to the sense of powerlessness caused by being unable to "adjust" to the body, there are tales of presences, anomalous perceptions, or intrusive figures in the scene of people desperately attempting to awaken. The stories are similar and describe a common sensation: that the personality stays intact, aware of its surroundings, but for some reason, it is unable to adjust to the body and ends up perceiving what appears to be a combination of "reality" and "hallucinations".

Hallucinations. Reports of anomalous occurrences during sleep paralysis.

The term "hallucination" is something recent in the specialized literature. It was created by J. Étienne Esquirol [1] in 1845. Before that, the term used for such occurrences was "apparition". It is noteworthy that, in the works of A. Kardec, the former is used in the sense that has become dominant, while the latter has taken on another meaning. In cases of sleep paralysis, it is common to use the terms "hypnagogic" and "hypnopompic" hallucinations, which should not be frightening, as these names are not used to "explain", but only to classify or designate something. The first term represents hallucinations that occur when falling asleep, while the latter designates those that occur when waking up. Such names were created by the spiritualist philologist Frederic Meyers (1843 – 1901).

Before outlining a Spiritist explanation for the expanded sensitivity that occurs during sleep paralysis, it is worth reading some reports. These were taken from comments on the website www.nosleeplessnights.com (3, accessed September 2015), but similar ones can be found in specialized literature (4):

Margaux de Bokay (September 22, 2015 / 8:02 AM): Hi my name Margaux, and I just experienced a Sleep Paralysis last night. But this one was different. My past experiences of sleep paralysis, I usually find myself in company of a black entity, demon or maleficent form. It doesn’t hold me down, it just stares at me and watch me struggle to move my body or cry for help. I usually fight so hard to get the control of my body back. Try to open my eyes to really see the shape or face of the entity. Try to touch it, feel it. And after fighting that hard, convincing myself I am in control of my own body, I am finally relieved, and the entity floats away. (my emphasis)

Bailey (September 17, 2015 at 3:50 am): I have these experiences a few times over the course of a few months.They have been happening since I was young. Tonight was probably one of the scariest times I’ve had with the thing. I am 3 months pregnant, and very tired a lot of the time. I had dozed off in my bed a few hours ago and suddenly I couldn’t move, I could hear a noise in my right ear like a woman talking, but she was speaking so fast I couldn’t make out the words. She sounded wrong to me, almost evil. I knew what was going on having experienced it before; but it was still terrifying. I thought maybe I opened my eyes and saw a group of shadows on my ceiling standing around me. They were quiet other than the woman talking. I could feel my hand on my lower abdomen and instantly I was scared for my developing baby. I kept trying to focus my mind on something positive. I am not religious, but my head went to singing Jesus loves me. And suddenly the woman stopped talking and said “there is no love" and went on babbling. I was shocked and freaked out by the response. I came out of it sweating and freaked out in my dark room by myself. I really wish there was a way to stop these episodes from happening; they concern me.  (my emphasis)

Kevin A (September 9, 2015 / 11:29 PM): I have had experiences like this for around 9-10 years now. Not too frequently but still more times than i would like. Every time, i am lying in bed, just woke up randomly in the middle of the night and i can’t move at all. Depending on the time depended on which side of the bed out was on. But there is always a pitch black figure that was darker than the pitch black room, about 7 foot tall in a black robe with extremely long fingers/fingernails (can’t see details well without contacts so i don’t know which) and it’s face is even blacker, there’s nothing where it’s face is supposed to be and then it raises it’s hands and points one of its fingers at me. In one of them he had glowing red eyes and a scythe but not in the rest. In one of them i started repeating the Lord’s prayer and he/it growled at me and another demon looking thing appeared in my face before disappearing and i woke up. In another i just focused on moving so i could fight it and woke up/got released. I don’t know which side of things to believe but i believe that science and religion can be together to come to a logical explanation hopefully not involving demons/malevolent spirits. (my emphasis)

Perhaps the occurrence of sleep paralysis accounts for the abundance of descriptions of "incubi" and "succubi" in ancient literature. This idea has been investigated in several works (see [8]) and allows for the description of certain cultural myths [9]. 

Draft of a Spiritist explanation

Hallucinations cannot be explained because no modern theory still integrates consciousness perceptions with information reception by the brain - despite numerous conceptual proposals - even though correlations exist between drug influence and nervous system nonconformities (some mental illnesses). These correlations do not imply causation. However, in cases of sleep paralysis, it is unknown whether the patient is under the effects of drugs or is mentally sick. Although it affects between 3% and 6% of the population, it is a rare incident in a person's life, usually classified as an "uncontrollable" event. However, as previously indicated, simply referring to the phenomena with a specific term or complicated designation does not provide an explanation.

However, reports of a "malignant presence" are so frequent that scholars have sought to provide an explanation. One that mixes neurology and evolutionism was proposed by Cheyne [4] (see abstract):

It is argued that the sensed presence during sleep paralysis arises because of REM-related endogenous activation of a hypervigilant and biased attentive state, the normal function of which is to resolve ambiguities inherent in biologically relevant threat cues. Given the lack of disambiguating environmental cues, however, the feeling of presence persists as a protracted experience that is both numinous and ominous. This experience, in turn, shapes the elaboration and integration of the concurrent hallucinations that often take on supernatural and daemonic qualities. The sense of presence considered here is an ‘other’ that is radically different from, and hence more than a mere projection of the self. Such a numinous sense of otherness may constitute a primordial core consciousness of the animate and sentient in the world around us. (my emphasis)

Therefore, these figures are seen as "mind constructions" that work more than "mere projections of the self". In other words and in any way, according to [4] they are live hallucinations. However, this explanation does not appear to be consistent with reports of the paralyzed individual's interaction with the entity, with others describing various presences [5], or even with my own experience (in my case, I did not see any "mysterious threat" - in fact, most sleep paralysis experiences do not include these presences). Other interpretations for the thesis of the "mind that confabulates with itself" as a self-protection mechanism can be found elsewhere [7].

Some observations of the facts narrated during these experiences are:

• They occur more frequently when waking up (only 10% occur when going asleep, they are often classified as "hypnopompic hallucinations'').
• The incidents appear to primarily impact young adults [4].
• The subject is not under the influence of medications.
• The subject is not mentally ill (although as already suggested, see [4], mental disorders may be associated with some occurrences).
• Some experiences report breathing difficulties.
• The episodes are uncontrollable. There is no way to predict or provoke them, nor an infallible method of ending the paralysis.
• The feeling of body control loss, hence the name "paralysis". It is vital to note that consciousness is functioning during the occurrence - it is not in a dream state - while feeling displaced or disconnected from its paralyzed body. 
• The room or place where the person is resting is always present in the experience. This is referred to as the "realistic perception of the environment" [8]. In other words, most of what the individuals see during sleep paralysis corresponds to the sole "reality" that they believe in.
• Some accounts (approximately 1/4 of instances, see 4) nearly always describe the presence of a malignant entity or "thing" that is watching the person in their agony to regain possession of the body.
• A few accounts describe complete out-of-body experiences.

Spiritism (as a dualist doctrine) holds that the brain does not create consciousness, but rather serves as an interface for its manifestation. As stated by W. James (1842 - 1910) [8b], the brain is a "transmissive medium", through which consciousness flows. As a result, while physiological causes for sleep paralysis can be identified, its genesis cannot be separated from the human being's dual nature. In this way, all hallucinations, as objects tangible only to the mind, originate in the spiritual element, whether from the incarnated person who observes them (as a result of his mental activity) or from other spirit sources. Some mediumistic narratives (such as those by spirit author André Luiz) describe Spirits experiencing hallucinations, meaning that the problem does not terminate with physical death because it originates in the spirit mind, which cannot be destroyed.

"Achilles Searching for the Shade of Patrocles". Johann Heirich Füssli (1803). Source: Wikipedia.

From the Spiritist point-of-view, two main factors should be taken into account to explain sleep paralysis:

1. The dual nature of the human being: the (biological) evolution of humans predicts experiences that begin to prepare us for a split life - between the two planes of existence (dreams being one of them). This means that sleep paralysis could be viewed as routine occurrences of "training" of the incarnated Spirit within its body. Such interconnected experiences cannot be dissociated during human existence.
2. "Spirits are everywhere" [6b]. Many experiences of unusual presences, most of which are associated with negative sensations, are most likely created by disembodied entities (Bailey's instance recounted above may be indicative of an interaction with a disembodied person in a less happy condition).

As a consequence of these principles, some remarks are possible:

1. Many people who experience sleep paralysis identify as agnostic or have no religious beliefs. However, during the occurrence, they ask for God's protection (or recall having asked for protection). This may indicate that the individual is in a state close to the spirit realm where he/she thinks as a spirit rather than an incarnated person. The frequent accounts that one thinks differently than when awake, even though the state of awareness is equivalent to being awake, reveals something about such dual nature of the human mind, or the frontier between the mind (spirit) and the brain.
2. Sleep paralysis can be described as an "incomplete/partial OBE" (out-of-body experience), a threshold zone between the onset of sleep and the waking state in which typical disembodied spirit faculties operate jointly or in a disturbed manner with the sensory faculties of the incarnated state. In it, the individual begins to see or interpret the presence of spirits, which are constantly present.
3. We do not believe that sleep paralysis implies the concomitant action of obsessions (systematic spiritual evil influence) or that it should be referred to as an obsessive process/state. Obsessions rarely limit their activity to midnight/sleep events; those who suffer from obsessions also have their daytime hours affected since the subject is always under the influence of the obsessive spirit. On the contrary, obsessed subjects may experience sleep paralysis more frequently than spiritually balanced individuals.
4. Nonetheless, perceptions of hearing something or someone "breathing" nearby, feeling weight on the body, and so on can be attributed to the spirit's inability to link with its own body.
5. Certain medical or psychological conditions, such as stress, depression, or trauma, facilitate the influence of ill-intentioned spirits, which is referred to as 'spirit attraction/fascination' in the Spiritist literature. The psychological state of the stressed individual mind simply attracts such discarnate spirits without more serious consequences. As a result, during sleep paralysis, these spirits may be perceived by the paralyzed, which is the cause for the link between these psychological conditions and the onset of sleep paralysis.
6. There are several videos on YouTube with recommendations on how to get rid of sleep paralysis, but they seem suspicious to me because they ignore the spiritual character of the experiences (which makes them random) and many anomalous details. In summary: they are incomplete because they rely too heavily on "neurological explanations" or materialistic views.

How to reduce unpleasant presence during sleep paralysis.

The Spiritist explanation has one advantage: it allows us to deduce procedures that, in theory, can reduce the stress of sleep paralysis (and there are reports to support this). Given that the paralysis may be described as a "partial OBE" phenomenon, we believe that mental control and adopting a positive stance with requests for protection - which must include praying - can significantly reduce ill-intentioned influences, even if the paralysis during sleep cannot be eliminated completely (remember, it is part of Human nature). Because the individual is "awake" in the paralyzed state, he can and should request this protection. Kardec seems to have summarized this point in the following passage:

Our studies teach that the invisible world that surrounds us constantly reacts on the visible world and shows us that it is one of the forces of Nature. To know the effects of this unseen force that dominates and subjugates us despite our will would mean possessing the key to many issues, as well as answers for many ignored occurrences. If the consequences can be terrible, isn't recognizing the source of evil a way to protect ourselves from it, just as understanding the qualities of electricity gave us the ability to mitigate the disastrous effects of lightning? If we succumb, we will only be able to complain about ourselves, because ignorance is not an excuse. The risk is in the empire that bad Spirits have over people, which is not only disastrous in terms of the errors of principle that they can promote, but also in terms of material life's interests. [6]

Prayer frees oneself from oppressive influence, reduces or even eliminates the action of evil-intentioned Spirits, and serves to strengthen (positively predispose) the spirit experiencing the paralysis. We will only have an effective treatment for sleep paralysis when all of the causes (physical and spiritual) are thoroughly understood. Clearly, the spiritist contribution cannot be overlooked.

References

1 - Blom, J. D. (2009). A dictionary of hallucinations. Springer Science & Business Media.

2 - Kardec, A. See: "The book on Mediums", 2nd Part, "On spirit manifestations", Cap. VI - On visual manifestation. "Theory of hallucination ".

3 - Link (2024): https://www.nosleeplessnights.com/sleep-paralysis-stories-intruder-demon-or-delusion/comment-page-11/?mode=list

4 - Cheyne, J. A. (2001). The ominous numinous. Sensed presence and 'other' hallucinations. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8(5-6), 133-150. 

• Link (2024): http://cabinet.auriol.free.fr/Documents/ParalysieSommeil/cheyne.pdf

5 - Terrillon, J. C., & Marques-Bonham, S. (2001). Does recurrent isolated sleep paralysis involve more than cognitive neurosciences. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 15(1), 97-123. Link (2024): ResearchGate.

6 - Original in French:

Nos études nous apprennent que le monde invisible qui nous entoure réagit constamment sur le monde visible ; elles nous le montrent comme une des puissances de la nature ; connaître les effets de cette puissance occulte qui nous domine et nous subjugue à notre insu, n'est-ce pas avoir la clef de plus d'un problème, l'explication d'une foule de faits qui passent inaperçus ? Si ces effets peuvent être funestes, connaître la cause du mal, n'est-ce pas avoir le moyen de s'en préserver, comme la connaissance des propriétés de l'électricité nous a donné le moyen d'atténuer les effets désastreux de la foudre ? Si nous succombons alors, nous ne pourrons nous en prendre qu'à nous-mêmes, car nous n'aurons pas l'ignorance pour excuse. Le danger est dans l'empire que les mauvais Esprits prennent sur les individus, et cet empire n'est pas seulement funeste au point de vue des erreurs de principes qu'ils peuvent propager, il l'est encore au point de vue des intérêts de la vie matérielle.

As found in: Kardec, A. "Revue Spirite - Journal D'Étude Psychologique". July 1859. Closing speech of the social year 1858-1859. 

• Link (2024): https://www.oconsolador.com.br/linkfixo/bibliotecavirtual/frances/revue-spirite-1859.pdf (in French)

6b - Kardec A. "The Medium's book". First Part - Preliminary observations, Chapter I - Are there spirits? Translated by Darrel W. Kimble and Marcia M. Saiz. 

• Link to the English version (2024 by FEB): https://www.febnet.org.br/portal/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-mediums-book.pdf

7 - McNamara P (2011) Sleep Paralysis - when you wake up but can't move. Psychology Today. Disponível em: (acesso outubro de 2015)

• Link (20204): https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dream-catcher/201112/sleep-paralysis

8 - Adler, S. R. (2011). Sleep paralysis: Night-mares, nocebos, and the mind-body connection. Rutgers University Press.

8b - Taylor S. (2019). The Genius of William James. Link (2024): Psychology Today.

9 - Some myths and tales around the world that can be explained as caused by sleep paralysis (see [8] for more examples):

• In Portugal, the word "pesadelo" (nightmare) might be linked to the feeling of a weight (peso) on the body caused by the inability to move during sleep paralysis.
• The phenomenon of the pressing ghost in Hong Kong;
• Kanashibari (金縛り) in Japan;
• Dab Tsog (the oppressing demon) - Hmong;
• Ogun Oru (night guerilla) in Iorubá (southwest Nigéria);
• Ga-ui Nool-lim (가위눌림, the pressing nighmare) - Korea.

The moral crisis (by Leon Denis) and the Spiritist answer

The present hour is a time of crisis and renewal. The world is in fermentation, corruption is in the ascendant: the mighty shadow spreads and the peril is great, but behind the shadow we perceive the light, and behind the peril, salvation. Society cannot perish: if it bears within it the germs of decomposition, there likewise are those of transformation and redemption. Decomposition confirms death, but it also heralds the new birth. It is the prelude of another life.

And whence will proceed this light, this salvation, this redemption? Surely not from the Church, which is incapable of regenerating the human mind. Not from science, which cares neither for conscience nor for character, but only for that which concerns the senses: devotion, virtue, justice, love all that enters into the making of noble characters and wholesome societies - none of these appertain to the domain of the senses.

That the moral level should be raised, that the two streams of superstition and skepticism, which terminate in a sea of sterility, may be checked, a fresh conception of life and of the universe is indispensable. One which, based upon the study of nature and conscience, upon the observation of facts and the principles of reason, may at last determine the aim of our life and regulate our onward progression. What we require is a belief which affords an incentive for improvement, a moral sanction and a strong conviction as to our ultimate fate.

But this conception and this teaching we already have: and daily are they becoming better known. Above the din of the disputes, above the divergences of philosophical schools, a voice has made itself heard - the voice of the Dead. The Dead have revealed themselves from beyond the grave, more alive than when they stood amongst us in the flesh. In the light of their revelations the veil has fallen, which hid from us the future life. Their precepts will conciliate all conflicting creeds, and will cause a new flame to arise from the ashes of the past. In the philosophy of Spiritism, we find again that secret doctrine which ran like a golden vein through the quartz of the ages, but renovated and now cleansed of its dross. Its shattered remnants have been gathered and bound together by a powerful cement, and even now frame an edifice vast enough to accommodate all nations and all civilizations. That the strength of its foundations might be beyond suspicion, the new edifice has been erected upon the rock of direct experience and constantly renewed faith. Thanks to it, the certainty of immortality is being made manifest to all men, together with the innumerable existence and the unceasing progress that await us in the successive cycles of eternity.

Such doctrine is bound to transform all the nations and classes of the world: conveying light where all is dark: melting, with its heat, the icy selfishness that lies at the heart of man: revealing to all men the laws that unite them with the bonds of a close solidarity. Its unification will be compounded of peace and harmony. Through it we shall learn the act with one heart and with one mind. Conscious of his strength, man will be able to advance with an assured tread towards his splendid destiny.

Leon Denis. From "Here and Hereafter", First Part, "The Moral Crisis". Translated by George Fleurot. Willian Rider and Son Limited. 2nd Edition. 1910.

Principles of spiritual healing 1: introduction

Fig 1 Jesus raises the daughter of Jairus. Gustave Doré (1832-1883).

In a sequence of several short texts, we will introduce and discuss here several aspects related to "spiritual healing" from the spiritist point of view. The subject is surely relevant, given the complex nature of healing process and the perspective of new treatments. In this introductory post, we will present some of the recent findings in the field and the spiritist interpretation of them, emphasizing the multiple sides of the phenomenon.

One should first give precise meaning to the words used to the notion of "healing" and "spiritual". The word "spiritual" is linked to "spirit" - in fact it is rooted in this word. The notion of spirit many times is in opposition to "matter" or the material part of the human being. Surely, if there is any recovery and it involves the body, "spiritual healing" can only refer to the process of obtaining the cure without the use of any material help, in a "spiritual way". Sometimes one also hears about "spirit healing" which seems to emphasize the spirit nature of the healing process. However, if there is a cure, it must involve certain material transformations, that is, they end up related to the body. Therefore, there must have a link, a channel or way between the purely "mental" or "spirit" side to the bodily "stuff". Understand this way or mechanism is presently one of the most challenging tasks since it involves the so-called "mind-body" interaction problem to which Spiritism may contribute. 

From the spiritist viewpoint, since life is eternal and the body is only a cloth - which is permanently dispensed after death - the real cure is a process attached to the spirit nature of human beings. Therefore, one can speak about the "true remedy" as a process which starts during the incarnate period but may only terminate after death. In fact, death may be part of the healing process from the viewpoint of the spirit life - hence the existence of terminal diseases. In this respect, to understand the true state of health one should also understand the hidden reason behind the existence of diseases affecting humans. According to the spirits, they are caused by deep unbalances in the human soul. Hence, although many physical causes may be identified as associated to a given body malfunction,  there will only be true cure after important transformations take place in the human spirit so as to render it "clean" from the conditions leading to the disease state. However, this is not the whole story. According to the spirits, in many situations, before reincarnation, the spirit asks for certain diseases in its future life in order to avoid the repetition of past mistakes: 

Before reincarnation, in the possession of full understanding as spirits, we analyzed the susceptible points of our souls and pleaded the issuing of physical hindrances at proper time in our own favor to immunize ourselves against the repetition of past mistakes we are still attached to. (Emmanuel, "Leis do Amor", F. C. Xavier, medium)

The law of "cause and effect" applied to the soul must be thoroughly investigated in order to fully understand the reason behind the occurrence of diseases. In fact, the very condition of an incarnate in this planet is a sign of our still imperfect nature as spirits (spirits say these imperfections are all related to the way we relate to ourselves, to God and our incarnate fellow). Otherwise, we should already have gained access to the superior worlds where diseases are not known - at least as they are on Earth. As a first conclusion, we should never miss this important point: my transitory life is just a brief moment in my true spirit existence and the diseases offer me important temporal opportunities of improvement of my soul. 

First works

fig. 2 "La Revue Spirite", or "Spiritist Magazine"

founded by Allan Kardec, discussed the existence

of healing mediums in its March 1860 issue..

Having said that, it is also appropriate to say that people can be attained cure of the body right now, both by undertaking the many treatments science has discovered by medicine and through "spiritual healing" as well. This is not in contradiction to what was written before. It is simply the end tip of the improvement process when the body no longer reflects the spirit unbalances because the soul is now straightened. The time is now ripe for the full recovery because we are worthy of it. The existence of "nonphysical" process of healing was discussed by Allan Kardec already in 1860 in the "Revue Spirite" (in the March issue, 1) under the title "Un médium guérisseur" ("A healing medium"). Part of the teachings put forward by the spirits to Kardec about "healing mediums" can be read in "The Book on Mediums" (2), Chapter 14, "Of mediums", when Kardec presents the many types of mediums. In Paragraph 175, one can read:

We shall say only that this kind of mediumship consists principally in the gift possessed by some persons of healing by the simple touch, by the look, even by the gesture, without the help of any medication. It will, doubtless, be said, that it is nothing but magnetism. It is evident the magnetic fluid here plays a great part; but this phenomenon is carefully examined, it is easily seen that there is something more (2).

The word in italics "magnetism" is of considerable importance here in order to understand Kardec's statement. This word has nothing to do with "magnetism" in the physical sense, the property of natural or artificial magnets. To understand this word in Kardec's context, we should go back to F. A. Mesmer (1734-1815) who coined the expression "animal magnetism" (3) as an analogue to "natural magnetism" to explain the many cures obtained by him (4). The idea is that a kind of fluid - called magnetic fluid - was exchanged between healer and the ill person. Since Mesmer theory had considerable influence at the time, it was natural to Kardec to adopt it - it was in fact accepted by many influential scholars. Later, Mesmer ideas were academically surpassed by the alternative idea of hypnosis which came as a kind of "official" explanation to the healing mystery.

Fig. 3 Illustration from Baron Du Potet's 1863 work 

on "mesmerism" depicting the idea of magnetic

 "effluvia" from healer to the patient as a possible 

explanation of healing process.

However, how much hypnotism can explain the many cures obtained by spiritual healers around the world today is a measure of the magnitude of the mistake of associating Mesmer's achievements with a purely hypnotic action. Surely Mesmer's flamboyant and theatrical personality did not contribute to his fame among scholars who were jealous of his miracles. Mainstream medicine today denies the existence of spiritual healing in much the same way it denied Mesmer's works in the past. In any way,  the presence of a kind of "invisible matter" exchanged between healer and the ill is still a useful principle and has survived in our days in the many references to a kind of "healing energy" responsible for the cures as we will see in a future post. 

Spirits account of the process of spiritual healing

After realizing hypnotism as a kind of "alternative explanation" put forward by scholars to explain away a phenomena originally discovered by Mesmer and reinforced by the existence of healing mediums and their associated phenomena, we can understand the explanation advanced by the spirits in Paragraph 176 of (2) on spiritual healing, (spirit answers and some original French words used by Kardec - neologisms in English -  are written in italics below). We reproduced some parts of this paragraph here given its importance and return later with some comments.

1. Can persons endowed with magnetic power (puissance magnétique) be considered as forming a variety of mediums? 

You cannot doubt it.

2. Yet the medium is an intermediary between the spirits and man; but the magnetizer (magnétiseur), drawing his strength from within himself, seems not to be the intermediary of any foreign power.  

It is an error: the magnetic power resides, doubtless, in the man; but it is augmented by the action of the spirits he calls to his aid. If you magnetize with a view to healing, for instance, and you invoke a good spirit, who interest himself in you and your patient, he augments your strength and your will;  he directs your fluid , and gives in the necessary qualities.

3. But there are very good magnetizers who do not believe in spirits. 

Do you think that spirits act only on those who believe in them? Those who magnetize for good purposes are seconded by good spirits every man who has a desire to do good undoubtedly calls them; the same as by the desire of evil, and evil intentions, he calls the evil.

4. Would he who has the power acct more efficaciously, should he believe in the intervention of spirits?

  He would do things you would look upon as miracles.

5.  Have some persons truly the gift of healing by the simple touch, without employing magnetic passes (passes magnétiques) ? 

Assuredly; have you not numerous examples of it? 

6. In this case is the magnetic action, or only influence of spirits? 

Both; these persons are veritable mediums, because they can act under the influence of spirits; but that is not to say they would be writing mediums as you would understand it.

One of the most important contributions of the spirititst teachings to the understanding of the true human nature and destiny is the role played by the spirits in the many human affairs. Accordingly, it is impossible to appreciate the phenomenon of spiritual healing without taking into account the spirits. They are not only responsible for the uncontrollable aspect of the healing process, but also by its full performance. No matter how one designates the invisible matter exchanged during the healing session - carried out in the presence of a healer - the recovery itself is mediated by the spirits who catalyze the whole healing action.

There is a strong dependence of the healing success on the force of the illness (how serious it affects the organism), since, for certain diseases, even the ill person has the power of cure himself, as can be seen in experiments exploring the placebo effect. In the questions above, Kardec confirms the healing action of people at his time known as "magnetizers" (nowadays, this term is no longer used), but emphasizes an important element in the presence and action of the spirits, no matter the healing power. To provide such action, the healer not even needs to believe in their existence, but this belief can greatly magnify the effect. The mental action exercised by the desire of attaining the cure works as a kind of "invocation" that is sufficient to call the attention of spirits and improve the process.

The idea of healing mediumship should however not be confused with intellectual mediumship when information from the spirit world is "channeled" through a medium. However, the characterization of spiritual healing as the result of a kind of "mediumship" is legitimate given the role played by the spirits in the process. In a future post, we will search the recent literature of modern experiments using healers and find more evidence in support of a possible spirit intervention. We will also see how prayer can affect the recovery of a given disease.  

References

1 - You can the original article by Kardec in French here:

 http://spirite.free.fr/ouvrages/revue1860/RS60.htm

2 - See  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_on_Mediums for a short introduction to this fundamental work. Anna Blackwell translation - "The Medium's Book'"- is found here: 

http://www.oconsolador.com.br/linkfixo/bibliotecavirtual/ingles/Mediums.pdf

The quote is acccording to Emma Wood translation: A. Kardec (1970). The Book on Mediums. Ed. Samuel Weiser, Inc. The original book in French can be read here: 

http://www.spirite.be/livres/fr/allankardec-mediums.pdf 

3 - For an incomplete e possibly biased account on Mesmer life see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mesmer

4 - In fact, the word "fluid" was used to describe many natural phenomena and not only magnetism. The "electric fluid" was conceived as responsible for all phenomena of electricity - including dynamic electricity, the idea of "electric current" was still in its infancy at the beginning of the XIX century. The same idea was applied to natural magnets which were viewed as possessing a kind of virtue in the form of magnetic fluid - exchanged through magnetic induction, for example, a kind of "action at distance". It was not difficult for Mesmer to conclude for the existence of a new type of fluid, this time associated to animals and human beings, carrying the "virtues of health" and which was also viewed as a kind of action at distance, as represented in Fig. 3.