A spirit may takes over a person and control his mind, body, and actions. The person's behavior abruptly changes from that which is normal for the person, but specific actions depend on what type of spirit has possessed him.

Across is a picture of a Vajrapani, Chanadorje. It is the embodiment of the power aspect of enlightenment.  It is vowed to protect whoever invokes the name of the medicine Buddha. It is used against all demonic influences and spirits.  It is especially associated with disorders of the central nervous system.

Disease is caused by malfunction of the humors. The three humors are air, bile and phlegm.   

Air - Wind is the humor primarily associated with mental disturbances. It is thought to be the most like the mind and most closely associated with mental dysfunction. Mind and wind are bound together. Most disorders are though to have disturbed air, and when you disturb the air greatly that leads to mental instability and depression.  All the winds circulate throughout the body as energy currents. They follow different pathways, but the main part of consciousness, the subtlest part of the “life winds”, the life force,  stays unmoving in the life-vein that is connected to the heart.  The heart is synonymous with the mind in Tibetan psychiatry. Consciousness, mental clarity, and the sense of self lies in the heart.  The winds carry sensory input to the brain through the channels, but the heart is where thoughts and sensory impressions reside. When the inner winds flow where they shouldn’t and go into the life vein in the heart this cause distortions of reality, like hallucinations. Disturbances in the life force can also cause physical problems, not just mental. 

Bile - Disturbances in bile cause a person to become mad, violent, and rough. Bile is an outcome of aversion-anger on the mental plane. The patient becomes violently psychotic.

Phlegm - Confusion and ignorance produce phlegm.  The patient becomes sullen, inactive, withdrawn, and forgetful. 

This wheel has to do with the notions of suffering and psychological health.  The Wheel of Life, or Wheel of Samsara, depicts what are known as the Six Realms of Existence.  Conscious beings are believed to cycle endlessly through the six realms as they die and are reborn numerous times. A circular form called the mandala illustrates the six realms which beings are subject: the Human Realm, the Animal Realm, the Hell Realm, the Realm of Pretus (Hungry Ghosts), the Realm of the Asuras (Jealous Gods or Titans), and the God Realm.

The Wheel of Life is used to teach about karma. Karma is the idea that a person’s action in this life will affect the kind of rebirth he or she will take in the next life. If a person is bad to others they will be reborn into the Hell Realms, if they are good to others they will be reborn in the God Realms or have easier human births. The Buddhist view of suffering says that the causes of suffering are also the causes of release; the sufferer’s perspective determines whether one finds a certain realm a way for spiritual awakening or oppression.  A person’s perceptions and ideas about the realms cause suffering, not the actual realms themselves.  Buddhism says that we cycle through the realms without fully experiencing any of them because we are afraid.  We slip from realm to realm without really knowing which realm we are in.  The best way to understand the Wheel of Life is to take it psychologically.  At the core of Buddhist practice is the psychological question of “Who am I?”  Each realm is a metaphor for a different psychological state and the entire wheel represents neurotic suffering. Buddhism says that our fear at directly experiencing ourselves that creates suffering. 

If we do not acknowledge our neurotic minds we can not become enlightened.  We must expose the neurotic parts of our mind in each of the six realms.  Each realm represents different states of being, different emotions, attitudes, and characteristics.

Liberating yourself from the realms in the Wheel of Life leads to clear perception of oneself. It is the true human experience.