In Bondage to Evil

A Psycho-Spiritual Understanding of Possession

Isaacs

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781532631429
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Religión

"Either you believe in possession or you do not. It is that simple, or at least that is how it often seems. However, the existence of the possession state in the human condition is not a matter of faith, it is a phenomenon that demands exploration." So begins the introduction of this psycho-spiritual exploration of involuntary (or demonic) possession. Avoiding the pitfalls of many such works, here is presented the inarguable fact that the possession state does occur and must be taken seriously if those who are afflicted are to be helped. The only argument that remains is the attributed cause of the state. Covering a comprehensive array of topics from the history of demonic possession to a present understanding of the phenomenology and intrapsychic dynamics of the possession state, the book also provides a depth of understanding with respect to the various forms of possession encountered throughout the world. Readers will also gain an understanding of the various cultural and psychological explanations for possession, including neuropsychological, hypnosis, and psychodynamic theories. It concludes with the examination of three cases of demonic possession and the presentation of diagnostic criteria to assist in differentiating possession from common forms of psychopathology.

1

Introduction

Either you believe in possession or you do not. It is that simple, or at least that is how it often seems. However, the existence of the possession state in the human condition is not a matter of faith, it is a phenomenon that demands exploration.

A man walks into the psychotherapist’s office. He is visibly nervous, fidgeting with a button on his shirt, gazing absently at the floor as he begins to describe what brings him in for consultation. It is embarrassing for him to talk about, but he has nowhere else to turn. He already went to his priest, but the priest said he needed to see a therapist. He went to a psychiatrist, but the medications only helped him sleep, they did not stop the thoughts or the fears. He begins to tell how his son committed suicide just over a year ago. How a few days after this he began to have disturbing intrusive thoughts, thoughts about killing his wife and his grandchild. He describes how these thoughts have been extremely difficult not to act upon, and the terror he has been in, a terror multiplied by what he learned only a few weeks ago. As he felt he could no longer contain his secret thoughts and impulses and hide them from his family, he shared his fears in a tearful session with his youngest son. It was then that he learned from his son the distressing fact that the boy who had recently committed suicide had had the same thoughts, the exact same thoughts. It was even because of this that he had killed himself, because he too could not restrain himself from action any longer. A dread came over the man, and the fear that this was no ordinary obsession. He began to question, “Am I possessed?”

Three men and a cat are sharing an apartment. It becomes obvious to two of the men that the third is into some very weird interests. He is burning candles in odd places, and bringing some very questionable people home. The two decide that they will ask him to move out. He agrees, but only after cursing the others and the apartment. The two scoff at this and use it as a topic of joking for weeks. One day, a few weeks later, the house cat dies. The veterinarian says that the internal organs had “seized up” for some inexplicable reason. They are saddened but think no more of it. A week later they find themselves in the local emergency room. One of the roommates is in extreme abdominal pain. He dies. The emergency room physician tells the remaining man that his friend has died, that his internal organs seemed to have “seized up” for some as yet unknown reason. In understandable terror the remaining man tells the physician the story of the curse; the physician says, “Sir, you don’t need a doctor, you need a minister!” Are they suffering the effects of a curse?

Whatever the reasons may be, whatever belief system one uses to interpret these events, a phenomenon has occurred that warrants investigation; an investigation that will take us to that liminal place between psychology and religion.

During the last century the concept of spirit-possession fell into increasing disrepute. As psychological knowledge increased, and the scientific study of psychological phenomena became more prevalent, the thought that the supernatural might be involved in individual pathology became discredited. Consequently, we moved from a belief that demons or spirits were causing the ills of humanity to the thought that people were suffering solely from mental illnesses.

With this shift in thinking many improvements were instituted in the treatment of the mentally ill. No longer were the insane placed into prisons and treated like animals. No longer were they seen as evil and as in league with the Devil. Rather, they were given treatment, much as a victim of any physical disease was treated. This advent of what is now called “Moral Treatment” was one of the launching points for today’s work in psychology. However, with the resurgence of belief in demonic possession, and the increase in the practice of both formal and informal exorcism, the question arises whether or not we have really done away with the phenomenon of possession. It appears that even though we may have witnessed the removal of the belief in demonic possession from our diagnostic categories, the phenomenon that was once described with attributes of the demonic still remains with us.

Much of what was once seen to be demonic possession can today be fit into one of the many psychodiagnostic categories available to us. We are able to view the schizophrenic aspects of the possession. We can see the hysterical attitudes of the possessed. The paranoid characteristics of those individuals, as well as the dissociative qualities involved, are clearly visible. Our problem arises when attempting to narrow the diagnostic criteria down to a point of truly classifying the possessed, and then attempting to treat the possessed as if he or she were schizophrenic, hysterical, paranoid, or suffering from dissociative identity disorder. It is at this point that we find ourselves at a loss, trying to accurately fit the possessed into any current classification. This may be because none of the current diagnostic categories can adequately describe as a whole the various phenomenon encountered in a possession. Possession may be a category of its own.

When we threw out the supernatural explanations of the universe, did we also then force ourselves to ignore certain of the stranger phenomena associated with possession, so that we could avoid the connotations which the concept of demon possession carried? If we did, and if a phenomenon of possession does exist—distinct from any other disorder that we now acknowledge—then we are being negligent in our service to those who are suffering from this malady. If such a phenomenon is present as a distinct manner of functioning, then it is time that we once again begin to recognize it and to learn how to treat it on its own merits, rather than attempting to treat this manner of functioning “as if” it were schizophrenia or any other diagnostic possibility.

The present work is an attempt to distinguish the possession state as an independent diagnostic category, and to begin to form a picture of the phenomenology and dynamics of possession so that it might be more easily distinguishable from the other forms of functioning that are similar in appearance.

The concept of spirit-possession is one that elicits a variety of responses in the modern person, from fear and respect to ridicule and disbelief. Yet in almost all known societies and cultures there have been the phenomena of persons entering into those altered states of consciousness commonly attributed to possession; states such as seeing visions, hearing voices, and acting as if a new and different personality has taken over.

Erika Bourguignon1 once grouped and classified these behaviors and beliefs under the rubric of what she called “trance behaviors and associated beliefs.” This classification assists us to better understand and differentiate among the various phenomena that have historically been seen as forms of possession.

Different cultures tend to understand trance behaviors by either a naturalistic or a supernaturalistic form of explanation. The Western technological societies tend to view the world in a more rationalistic and scientific manner and so have more frequently preferred the naturalistic form of explanation. Within this frame of reference, altered states of consciousness can be seen as the result of some form of inducement such as hypnosis, extreme fear, and drugs. They might be seen as the consequence of an illness, whether somatic or psychological in origin. The most common somatic explanation that Bourguignon has encountered for the cause of an altered state of consciousness is fever. She has found the primary psychological explanations to have been either multiple personality (today’s dissociative identity disorder), hysteria, some form of psychosis, or even epilepsy. We shall look more closely at how these psychological explanations have been elucidated later in our discussion.

The naturalistic explanation of these behaviors is relatively new in comparison to its counterpart. Explaining the altered states of consciousness by means of the supernatural has historically been the prominent method, and still is in many cultures today. Even in our highly technological society there remains a large sub-culture that explains the world in a supernatural manner. The supernatural way of thinking is evident even in people who would prefer to believe themselves to be “modern” and “rational,” as is obvious from the simple fact that almost every large newspaper still carries the daily horoscope.

As with the naturalistic system—which has a variety of ways for explaining the possession phenomena—so too, the supernaturalistic system is complex and varied. A belief in involuntary possession is not common to all cultures, but the similar phenomena, of persons entering altered states of consciousness, is common. The explanations of these similar phenomena are what differ more than do the phenomena themselves. Bourguignon divided these explanations into non-possession beliefs and possession beliefs, which is similar to Oesterreich’s2 description of voluntary and spontaneous (or involuntary) forms of possession.

Under the rubric of non-possession beliefs we find the practices of witchcraft, mysticism, mediumship (communication with spirits), and shamanism. Though Bourguignon refers to these as non-possession beliefs, Oesterreich sees these as forms of voluntary possession. The person has intentionally become possessed for some specific purpose, for a short period of time. The witch may become possessed with mana—or power—or with a certain spirit in order to curse, bless, or create medicines. The shaman may go on the spirit-journey to gain power, knowledge, or to find a lost soul and return it to its owner: all for a price. The medium may be possessed by the dead or other spirits to bring information to those still living or “confined to the earthly plane.” The mystic may enter an altered state of consciousness in order to find God, or to lose his or her ego into a form of “cosmic consciousness.” Even though in almost all of these practices the person may have felt a call to enter the altered state—whether it was the witch seeing Satan ask her to join him, or the Native American shaman hearing the call of the wolf as a call to spiritually join Brother Wolf—still it was the person’s choice to become possessed by either the new personality or the new-found ability or power.

This is illustrated in an event related by Pattison.3 He tells the story of a teenage Native American girl who one day saw ghosts in the forest and thereafter became haunted by a ghost, and seemingly possessed. Later she found out from her mother that this was the ghost of her dead grandfather who had been a powerful shaman. Before his death, the grandfather had chosen to pass his powers on to the girl when she was ready. The possession was believed by both the girl and her mother to be the grandfather attempting to pass on his powers to the girl at this point in her life. But she had the ability—with the help of her mother and the community—to either accept these powers or to reject them. She had the choice of whether to be possessed by her grandfather’s power, and so then to possess them as a shaman in her own right, or to reject the power. The incident concluded with the girl deciding to reject the power, and upon doing so the haunting and possession ceased.

This is the difference between the two forms of possession. With the voluntary—or non-possession—form, the person is able to reject the possession. But this is not case with what Bourguignon has called the possession belief—the involuntary possession.

Possession, as most people think of it, is best described by Bourguignon’s description of possession belief, or Oesterreich’s spontaneous possession. It is within this category that such stories as Dracula and The Exorcist are to be found. It is here that we encounter the belief in, and fear of, demons and devils. It is this phenomenon—the phenomenon of involuntary possession—that we will be focusing upon in this work. In the following pages we will be examining the various explanations of involuntary possession, from antiquity to the present.

As mentioned before, for many today, demonic possession (which is a form of involuntary possession) is merely the historical explanation for certain diseases and mental illnesses. Freud saw it as such when he said that “the neuroses of . . . early times emerge in demonological trappings.”4 Thus we are led to believe that in antiquity all forms of mental illness were seen as possessions by either demons, the gods, or ghosts and so conversely that in our day all expression of what was classically seen as possession is in actuality mental illness. We will explore the validity of this belief by examining the place of involunt...