If you are haunted by an objectionable ghost, provide yourself with a sword or a dagger and stab him when he makes his appearance. They are awfully afraid of swords, although if you cut one in two, he will join together again, or if you cut his head off or leg off, he will put the member right on again. But he does not like it, and will thereafter leave you severely alone. Bodin says that in 1557 an elementary, thundering demon fell down with the lightning into the house of one Poudot and kept throwing stones all about the room for several days. The magistrate came to investigate, and the spirit knocked his hat off and drove him out of the house. At last Poudot got a sword and slashed all around the room, whereupon the spirit disappeared. Where the ghosts are real troublesome, you can drive them away by distributing holy medallions around the house where the ghosts can see them. As the medallions have been blessed or magnetized, God has been injected into them, and they consequently are gods, and mischievous spirits who cut up capers around the house are afraid of these deities. I have a blessed idol of Buddha on my desk to keep the ghosts out of the office and prevent them from interfering with the composition of this pious work. Modern spirits are often lying spirits. They are ever on hand to humor the respective hobbies of the persons who communicate with them at circles, and deceive them. When Luther, the sorcerer, evoked the demon, he was told that he should not worship the Virgin. But when St. Dominic called upon the devils, they told him that nobody was damned that persevered in her holy worship. The golden legend of James de Viragine shows that the Virgin gave to St. Dominic a miraculous rosary, by which he could perform greater miracles than Christ. But a certain abandoned sinner was bold enough to doubt the virtues of the rosary, and immediately fifteen thousand devils took possession of him, and being questioned by St. Dominic, they emitted flames from the nostrils, eyes and ears of the demoniac and certified to the virtues of the rosary. Over a hundred angels appeared in golden armor, together with the blessed Virgin herself bearing a golden rod, with which she administered a sound thrashing to the demoniac. The numerous theological truths uttered by St. Dominic’s devils were embodied in so many articles of faith, according to Isis Unveiled, 2-76. One who is unprotected, the tricky powers of the air but too often delude with the semblance of voices. In all the Mysteries, strong drink or anaesthetics were administered to the initiates to sunder the soul from the body and produce visions. The Sankhya system teaches that the ghost, or astral body, can shrink to such a minute space that it can penetrate anything, or enlarge to a gigantic body, or float through space, or standing on the earth can reach the moon, that its will is irresistible, having dominion over all things and the ability to attain every desire.