E22078

     Medical science holds that tuberculosis results from infection by germs, but actually there are two causes for tuberculosis, one cause that I described previously, due to the mistakes of medical science, and, the other, tuberculosis as caused by a diseased spirit which I explain here.
     To begin, take the example of a family with a girl who contracts tuberculosis and dies. Then, soon after a sibling contracts tuberculosis and also dies, an example where the disease is contracted and death follows one after another. Or else, in the case of a married couple, a spouse dies due to tuberculosis and shortly after the other spouse contracts tuberculosis. When these facts are observed, the only conclusion that can be reached is that the deaths are due to infection. Furthermore, as if backing up this explanation, Dr. Robert Koch discovered tuberculin, and the infection theory came about, so it is not unreasonable that the general population came to believe in the infection theory.
     However, I state that this theory is a great fallacy. To explain the true cause of tuberculosis, the spirits of individuals who die after contracting tuberculosis go to the spiritual world and begin life there, but because they cannot bear their isolation, they start to draw to themselves those such as a sibling, friend, or spouse with whom they were familiar in the physical world—that is the reason for this type of possession. Even when sick persons die and go to the spiritual world, their diseased condition continues, so in cases of possession, it is quite terrifying but only natural that tubercular symptoms present in the possessed individual. Another aspect of possession is that the more vigorous and vital individuals are, the more difficult they are to possess, so possessing spirits wait for an opportunity. Once in a while, individuals happen to weaken because colds are caught or fatigue results from overexertion, and the possessing spirits pounce and possess the weakened individuals. Medical theory mistakenly attributes the cause of tuberculosis simply to overexertion. The following accounts are quite apropos of this example.
     Several years ago, my wife suddenly became feverish and experienced coughing that produced lots of bloody phlegm, symptoms to the extent of the third stage of tuberculosis. I immediately treated her, but there were no noticeable results. Two to three days passed and repeatedly symptoms first improved, then worsened. It was at this point that I thought that this case must be spiritual in nature, so when I went to investigate the possibility of possession, there were enough signs to indicate that it was possession. The possessing spirit had died about a year before. He had been a young man named Suzuki whom I had treated for pulmonary tuberculosis. He had lived with his father and because of his long illness, all their property had been used up and he had died in extreme poverty, so appropriate offerings for him had hardly been made. I discovered that he had possessed my wife to tell me that he wanted me to enshrine him because in the spiritual world, he was alone, isolated, and neglected. In fits and starts he conveyed this through my wife’s mouth. Of course, the expression on the face and the language was Suzuki’s as I remembered him. I told him, “I will enshrine you tomorrow night, so quickly leave this body.” He was very happy, thanked me, and immediately left my wife’s body after which my wife returned to normal as if nothing had happened. It was such a clear case of possession that even I was surprised. He is still enshrined at my home.
     The next example was a middle-aged woman from a certain red-light district who had suffered for a long time with a cough and symptoms quite like tuberculosis. I was asked to her place and when I started treatment, immediately it seemed she was possessed, so I conducted a spiritual investigation. Sure enough, she suddenly fell over and her arms and legs retracted like an animal. After an examination, I found it to be a case of possession by an isolated spirit. The isolated spirit told me that it was from the clan of spirits of a hawk-eagle inari, and its purpose in possessing the lady was to play around, have fun, and eat delicious foods. I told the spirit, “you have possessed someone else besides this lady before, haven’t you?” I judged the spirit to be limiting its activities to the red-light quarters, and it said, “I possessed a geisha. The doctor called it pleurisy and she died after a long time of being sick.” I censured the isolated spirit for its bad deeds and told it to quickly repent and leave the body. The spirit bowed repeatedly and left. The patient awoke as if from a dream and I treated her as if I were getting rid of the disease. She said she was completely unconscious while the spirit had been talking and was very surprised when I told her what the spirit had said. At that time I deeply thought about the value of the lives of the lords of all creation, swaggering about, putting on airs, who are at the mercy of that such as isolated spirits, being made to suffer diseases, even losing life.
     The next case was again my wife who, this time, experienced cramps. She thrashed about from severe pain in her stomach. When I started to treat her stomach, the pain subsided but did not go away. The pain was in one place, a circle about an inch wide and it gradually moved upwards. Just as the circle moved to the throat area, my wife called out, “I can’t take it anymore!” That is when I thought, “This must be a possessing spirit,” so I said to it, “Who are you?” The spirit tried to speak but could not manage to get anything out. That is when I asked, “Are you the spirit of so-and-so who died from a brain disease about three months ago?” It replied in the affirmative, and in various ways I asked more specific questions, I found out that its purpose in possessing my wife was to ask me to stop telling people about the bad deeds that it had done in its previous life which I had spoken of on several occasions. I apologized and promised not to do so again upon which the spirit became very happy, thanked me, and left. Before it had even seemed to have left, my wife returned to normality. The old saying, “Do not speak ill of the dead” is absolutely true.
     When actual examples such as those above are experienced, there is no choice but to believe in the intimate relationship between spirit and disease.