Does possession by evil spirits really take place ?

Question to Martinus quoted from Kosmos 3 – 1986:

Does possession by evil spirits really take place ? Can a human being really house such a spirit, and what is the cause of this ?

Answer by Martinus (1933):
Possession can take place and is often a prominent feature in causing crime, including murder and manslaughter. In those cases where a crime is due to possession the criminal cannot give an account of his misdeeds afterwards. He has been in a sort of half-trance. He remembers only that he was gripped by and overwhelming desire to commit the crime. As science is not sufficiently advanced to document possession as a cause, this is sometimes mistakenly recorded as ”sudden fit of insanity”.

The causes of possession can vary widely, but in most cases it is due to the fact that the spiritual beings who are the source of the possession are extremely earth-bound. This earth-boundness may, for example, consist of vindictiveness partly towards the individual who becomes possessed and partly towards the individual who is the victim of the crime.

Possession can also be light in nature, but this form is not so common because light spirits leave the first sphere of the spiritual world relatively quickly. This sphere is the one from which all dark possession can be released and which therefore houses mainly primitive and dark spirits or beings who still delight in dark and killing manifestations.

When threatened with spiritual possession, each normal individual has so much resistance that he cannot be possessed against his will. Possession can therefore take place only in those cases where the individual has lost faith in his will or has lost his self-control: for example, in a trance, under hypnosis or during a fit of rage. Under these circumstances, strong, dark spirits can more or less take possession of such a being's physical body and, through this, want only seek the satisfaction of their primitive physical desires.

The situation therefore demands that one never loses one's self-confidence, for protection lies in the firm belief that no spiritual being can take possession of one's physical body, which is of course meant entirely for oneself. Direct your thoughts to God each time you notice physic unpleasantness approaching you and you will then be the victorious and invincible ruler of your own organism, because such an attitude of thought in its purest form releases vibrations which weaken any form of dark psychic influence as water can put our fire.

(Translation MMG)