Question: Is there any way for somebody — not somebody in the spiritual life but an ordinary person — to fight if a spirit attacks them? Is there anything that they could do? In the movies like Dracula and others they have the cross and all these religious things that will stop a ghost from hurting them

Sri Chinmoy: It is good if one can show something like that. If a hostile spirit, an evil spirit, attacks, the most effective defence is always to use purity. These forces cannot tolerate purity.

If someone has been attacked and is helpless, occultists can do something to help them. I have also done this. First they make a circle and then they enter into the soul of the person who is the victim. The soul can give the occultist a message; the soul has the omnipotent power to bring forward right in front of the occultist the actual image of that particular ghost or evil spirit. So the soul, like an x-ray machine, will bring it forward and say, “Here is the one; this is the evil spirit that has attacked me.” Then the occultist will immediately write down, or paint or somehow capture just the impression of the spirit on a piece of paper. He need not be an artist — far from it. Then he uses some occult formula and crosses the whole face with the help of the soul. When he does this, the spirit that was inside the victim leaves. The person may be unconscious; he may be vomiting or behaving strangely. Usually the victim of an evil spirit is terribly afraid of water, and also of his friends or relatives. Anything that he sees frightens him. But when the occultist uses his power, immediately the victim is released. In serious cases, when the victim does not get any help from a competent occultist, the doctors will give injections and do many things. The victim will remain in the hospital for three, four, five days before he dies, and most of the time he will be in a coma.