Great Construction

Mental Illness (The Pathway to Light)

     I had the experience of treating the mental illness of a seventeen-year-old female student. She would storm about and at certain times strip and act quite violently. During these episodes, her energy was such that it took about three males to hold her down. There were also times when she was quite haughty and would curse her mother. I discovered that the cause of her condition was as I describe below.
     The woman’s father had passed away several years before, and the only remaining family member was the mother, but that mother had, several months previously, joined one of the Sectarian Shinto churches, had changed the enshrinement of the family’s ancestors, and had discarded the family altar and tablets. Because of these acts, the father’s dead spirit was angry which became the main reason behind the daughter’s mental illness.
     Another factor, however, was that while the father was still alive, the family had moved from Sendai to Tokyo. The former residence has been sold, but the inari shrine on the premises had been left as is. The buyer had disposed of the inari shrine and the inari spirit became angry. The angry inari spirit had possessed the father who had moved to Tokyo, and the father became mentally ill. Ultimately he died. The daughter’s condition was because the two spirits, the father’s and the inari’s, had possessed her. Therefore, when the daughter had convulsions, the father’s spirit would scold the mother and the inari or fox spirit would revert to its normal self. Through my treatment, the daughter fully recovered, later married, and is now the mother of two children, different in no way from the average person.
     There are many cases where, as this episode illustrates, individuals become mentally unstable through the disposal of inari shrines. Let me give another interesting example, a youth of twenty years. I employed him in my home when he had almost been healed. He was always assigned to do work in the gardens, but a fox spirit would regularly interfere with my instructions. For example, I told the youth to cut all the grass in one area of the garden, but when I went back to check after a while, I saw that one section remained uncut. I asked why he had not cut all the grass, and he replied that I had said not to cut one part. I told him, “There is no reason I should say such a thing.” I then asked him, “When you heard me tell you to leave one section uncut, did you actually see me?” He replied, “No, I didn’t see you, I just heard your voice.” I instructed him that what he was hearing was a fox spirit using a voice that resembled mine and from now on to be aware of such possibilities. He soon forgot the warning, and episodes as described above often occurred.

The Pathway to Light, Jikan Library, Volume 9, page 65, December 30, 1949
    translated by cynndd