Spirit possession

Spirit possession

Unlike demonic possession where the person is thought to be taken over by the Devil or his demons for harm, spirit possession is a voluntary, culturally sanctioned displacement of the personality. The spirits, be they deities, angels, demons, advanced entities, or the dead, are invited to enter a human person to educate, communicate with the living or just because they do not realize they are dead and need help in passing to their next realm.

The exorcist - scary priest

In modern Christianity spirit possession is mainly practiced by the Pentecostal and Assemblies of God Protestant denominations along with other charismatic groups. They connect their practices to the happenings on the First Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2:4, when what appeared to be flames or tongues of fire settled on the heads of each of the apostles and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Even though it seemed remarkable the apostles spoke in different languages, what appeared equally remarkable “was that the apostles’ listeners recognized their own languages and realized the apostles should not have been able to speak them. Whatever the apostles said was heard in each ones native language.” This phenomena of speaking or writing in a foreign language is known as glossolalia.

The apostles were said to be possessed by the Holy Spirit and these denominations claim the practice still exists among members of their congregations. The people frequently speak in strange tongues or languages and enter a trance state. They believe the Holy Spirit speaks directly to them during these times.

Other Christians also believe in the Holy Spirit and pray to it for guidance and help, but until recently many did not think they ever became possessed by it. However, in the 1960s and 1970s a charismatic renewal began. Persons of other Christian denominations other than the Pentecostals began to express a more personal union with God through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Talking in tongues was considered a sign that the religious experience had occurred. Other signs or gifts of the Holy Spirit were receiving of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning spirits and interpreting tongues. Pope Paul VI blessed the movement in 1973, and celebrated a charismatic mass in 1975. However, one psychical researcher, James H. Hyslop, thought the charismatic movement bordered on the occult.

Spirit possession is not restricted to Christians but has been and is practiced by many groups and cultures throughout the world. The Greek civilization had their oracles that prophesied future events.

The ancient Druids believed in spirit possession, especially of the Mother Goddess. The ceremony was held annually and was similar to the “Drawing Down the Moon” ritual as described below. Marion Zimmer Bradley describes the Druid ritual in her novel “The Forest House.”

Shamanism also employs spirit possession when securing cures from illnesses and driving evil spirits out of persons. The shaman enters a trance before becoming possessed by the spirit.

The concept of spirit possession by various deities plays a major role in religious worship in the Caribbean, the Middle East, India, and Africa. In the Caribbean and especially Africa a variety of Vodoun (also Voodoo) religions are found. This possession is often sought after, and is considered to be received by only a worthy person. The possession usually occurs during religious ceremonies and only lasts during the event. Becoming possessed is known as “mounting the horse.” The horse is the person or victim who “manifests” the spirit, and the spirit is the one who “rides” him or her.

Often the victims enter a trance and dance and do things which they would be unable to do in their conscious state of awareness. Many elderly and physically disabled persons have displayed this unique ability or behavior. Similar possessions occur in Santeria and Macumba.

In Neo-paganism there are two rituals which involve spirit possession. They are the “Drawing Down the Moon” which is the invoking of the Goddess (moon) into the high priestress, and is more prevalently celebrated; and the “Drawing the Sun” which invokes God (sun) into the high priest. According to the beliefs in Neo-pagan witchcraft, during the ritual of “Drawing Down the Moon” the priest invokes the Goddess or Triple Goddess, symbolized by the phases of the moon, into the priestess. Others believed the priestess invokes the Goddess into herself. The ritual usually occurs within what is known as the magic circle. Depending on the priestess’ attitude she often experiences the spirit possession of the Goddess, during which time many believe the Goddess speaks and works blessings through the priestess. The priestess’ elated feeling can linger for days afterwards. There can be a similar experience for the priest who has been possessed by the God.

Similarly in Spiritualism some mediums while in trances claim spirits speak through them. In Spiritualist churches trance, spirit-possessed medium frequently deliver sermons as well as messages from the dead meant for the congregation.

Channeling, a New Age term for a type of spirit possession, also involves the invoking of higher developed entities to speak to human audiences.

Mediums involved in Spiritualism and channeling do not fear the spirits which possess them at times. They believe such possession is temporary. If the spirit linger too long its exorcism takes the form of a stern conversation in which it is told to depart.

Spirit possession is a term for the belief that animas, aliens, demons, gods, or spirits can take control of a human body.

 The concept of spirit possession exists in many religions, including Christianity, Buddhism, Haitian Vodou, Wicca, Hinduism, Islam and Southeast Asian and African traditions. In a 1969 study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, spirit possession beliefs were found to exist in 74 percent of a sample of 488 societies in all parts of the world.

Scene possession from constantine film

Spirit possession

Depending on the cultural context in which it is found, possession may be considered voluntary or involuntary and may be considered to have beneficial or detrimental effects on the host. Within possession cults, the belief that one is possessed by spirits is more common among women than men.

Ancient EgyptiansEdit

According to Augustin Calmet:

Part of the exorcisme from The Exorcist1

The Egyptians believed that when the spirit of an animal is separated from its body by violence, it does not go to a distance, but remains near it. It is the same with the soul of a man who has died a violent death; it remains near the body—nothing can make it go away; it is retained there by sympathy; several have been seen sighing near their bodies which were interred. The magicians abuse their power over such in their incantations; they force them to obey, when they are masters of the dead body, or even part of it. Frequent experience taught them that there is a secret virtue in the body, which draws towards it the spirit which has once inhabited it; wherefore those who wish to receive or become the receptacles of the spirits of such animals as know the future, eat the principle parts of them, as the hearts of crows, moles, or hawks.  

The spirit of these creatures enters into them at the moment they eat this food, and makes them give out oracles like divinities.. Porphyry, when consulted by Anebo, an Egyptian priest, if those who foretell the future and perform prodigies have more powerful souls, or whether they receive power from some strange spirit, replies that, according to appearance, all these things are done by means of certain evil spirits that are naturally knavish, and take all sorts of shapes, and do everything that one sees happen, whether good or evil; but that in the end they never lead men to what is truly good. - Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenant

Horn of AfricaEdit

EthiopiaEdit

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Among the Gurage people of Ethiopia, spirit possession is a common belief. Wiliam A. Shack postulated that it is caused by Gurage cultural attitudes about food and hunger, while they have a plentiful food supply, cultural pressures that force the Gurage to either share it to meet social obligations, or hoard it and eat it secretly cause feelings of anxiety.

 Distinctions are drawn between spirits that strictly possess men, spirits that possess women, and spirits that possess victims of either sex. A ritual illness that only affects men is believed to be caused by a spirit called awre. 

This affliction presents itself by loss of appetite, nausea, and attacks from severe stomach pains. If it persists the victim may enter a trancelike stupor, in which he sometimes regains consciousness long enough to take food and water. Breathing is often labored. Seizures and trembling overcome the patient, and in extreme cases, partial paralysis of the extremities.

The possession from the Conjuring

If the victim does not recover naturally, a traditional healer, or sagwara, is summoned. Once the sagwara has determined the spirit's name through the use of divination, he prescribes a routine formula to exorcise the spirit. This is not a permanent cure, however, it is believed to allow the victim to form a relationship with the spirit. Nevertheless, the victim is subject to chronic repossession, which is treated by repeating the formula. 

This formula involves the preparation and consumption of a dish of ensete, butter, and red pepper. During this ritual, the victim's head is covered with a drape, and he eats the ensete ravenously while other ritual participants participate by chanting. The ritual ends when the possessing spirit announces that it is satisfied.

 Shack notes that the victims are overwhelmingly poor men, and that women are not as food-deprived as men are due to ritual activities that involve food redistribution and consumption. 

Shack postulates that the awre serves to bring the possessed man to the center of social attention, and to relieve his anxieties over his inability to gain prestige from redistributing food, which is the primary way in which Gurage men gain status in their society.

Sidama peopleEdit

The belief in spirit possession is part of their native culture of the Sidama people of southwest Ethiopia. Anthropologists Irene and John Hamer postulated that it is a form of compensation for being deprived within Sidama society, although they do not draw from I.M. Lewis (see Cultural anthropology section under Scientific views). 

The majority of the possessed are women whose spirits demand luxury goods to alleviate their condition, but men can be possessed as well. Possessed individuals of both sexes can become healers due to their condition. Hamer and Hamer suggest that this is a form of compensation among deprived men in the deeply competitive society of the Sidama, for if a man cannot gain prestige as an orator, warrior, or farmer, he may still gain prestige as a spirit healer. Women are sometimes accused of faking possession, but men never are.

East AfricaEdit

KenyaEdit

Digo peopleEdit

The Digo people of Kenya refer to the spirits that supposedly possess them as shaitani. These shaitani typically demand luxury items to make the patient well again. Despite the fact that men sometimes accuse women of faking the possessions in order to get luxury items, attention, and sympathy, they do generally regard spirit possession as a genuine condition and view victims of it as being ill through no fault of their own. However, men sometimes suspect women of actively colluding with spirits in order to be possessed.

Giriama peopleEdit

The Giriama people of coastal Kenya believe in spirit possession.

MayotteEdit

In Mayotte, approximately 25 percent of the adult population, and five times as many women as men, enter trance states in which they are supposedly possessed by certain identifiable spirits who maintain stable and coherent identities from one possession to the next.

MozambiqueEdit

In Mozambique, a new belief in spirit possession appeared after the Mozambican Civil War. These spirits, called gamba, are said to be identified as dead soldiers, and allegedly overwhelmingly possess women. Prior to the war, spirit possession was limited to certain families and was less common.

UgandaEdit

In Uganda, a woman named Alice Auma was reportedly possessed by the spirit of a male Italian soldier named Lakwena, meaning messenger. She had ultimately led a failed insurrection against governmental forces.

Southern AfricaEdit

South AfricaEdit

A belief in spirit possession appears among the Xesibe, a Xhosa speaking people from Transkei, South Africa. The majority of the supposedly possessed are married women. The condition of spirit possession among them is called inwatso.

 Those who develop the condition of inwatso are regarded as having a special calling to divine the future. They are first treated with sympathy, and then with respect as they allegedly develop their abilities to foretell the future.

TanzaniaEdit

The Sukuma people of Tanzania believe in spirit possession.

ZanzibarEdit

A now extinct spirit possession cult existed among the Hadimu women of Zanzibar, revering a spirit called kitimiri. This cult described in an 1869 account by a French missionary. The cult faded by the 1920s and was virtually unknown by the 1960s.

West AfricaEdit

Further information: Hausa animism

African diasporic traditionsEdit

Haitian VodouEdit

In Haitian Vodou and related African diaspora traditions, one way that those who participate or practice can have a spiritual experience is by being possessed by the Loa (or lwa). When the loa descends upon a practitioner, the practitioner's body is being used by the spirit, according to the tradition. Some spirits are believed to be able to give prophecies of upcoming events or situations pertaining to the possessed one, also called Chwal or the "Horse of the Spirit." 

Practitioners describe this as a beautiful but very tiring experience. Most people who are possessed by the spirit describe the onset as a feeling of blackness or energy flowing through their body as if they were being electrocuted. According to Vodou believers, when this occurs, it is a sign that a possession is about to take place.

According to tradition, the practitioner has no recollection of the possession and in fact when the possessing spirit leaves the body, the possessed one is tired and wonders what has happened during the possession. It is also believed that there are those who feign possessions because they want attention or a feeling of importance, because those who are possessed carry a high importance in ceremony. 

Often, a chwal will undergo some form of trial or testing to make sure that the possession is allegedly genuine. As an example, someone possessed by one of the Guédé spirits may be offered piment, a liqueurmade by steeping twenty-one chili peppers in kleren, a potent alcoholic beverage. If the chwal consumes the piment without showing any evidence of pain or discomfort, the possession is regarded as genuine.

UmbandaEdit

The concept of spirit possession is also found in Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian folk religion. According to tradition, one such possessing spirit is Pomba Gira, who possesses both women and effeminate males.