Do Spirits Play a Role in Addiction and Relapse

While working in the psychology department of a large state prison with a chronic alcoholic Apache Indian Jerry Marzinsky M.Ed. was told an intriguing story by this inmate of a constant battle with the spirits of deceased alcoholics who still craved alcohol continually attempted to invade and drive him to drink. The story dovetailed the reports of hundreds of drug addicts and alcoholics reporting invasive thoughts urging them to drink and use. The Christian Mystic Emanuel Swedenborg wrote about the existence of such spiritual forces some 300 years ago. The implication is that addiction is as much a spiritual disease as it is a physical one and if the deleterious spiritual aspects are not addressed addicted individuals will continue to relapse at a horrendous rate.