DEMONIC POSSESSION AND EXORCISM

"St. Francis Borgia helping a dying impenitent" by Francisco Goya (1795)

Possession by demons, that is, evil spirits, and the resulting need to free the person who is experiencing this type of change through shamanistic healing, is reported from many parts of the world. While the concept of possession is often attributed to shamans, core shamans and the shamans of hunter-gatherer societies generally do not experience possession (Winkelman 1992). Possession experiences are associated with societies where the people’s livelihood is predominantly agricultural, and with cultures characterized by social stratification and jurisdiction hierarchy (Bourguignon and Evascu 1977). Possession is, however, significantly and independently predicted by political integration (Winkelman 1992).

The phenomenon of possession is widespread, but the type of invading entity varies according to the cultural circumstances in which it arises. It is not always negative. Sometimes a possessing entity is helpful, having been called by a ritual to enter a body and then leaving at the conclusion of that ritual. In somecultures, spirits are useful if one is careful not to offend them. The therapeutic resolution of possession experiences is traditionally achieved through the ritual of exorcism. In other cultures, invading entities are considered inherently dangerous.

This article focuses upon negative possession experiences and their therapeutic resolution.

Possession is conceptualized as involving an alien entity or consciousness that enters into a person’s body, influencing the person and acting through and controlling the person’s body. Possession generally occurs spontaneously, and then may be deliberately induced in healing sessions through drumming, dancing, and drugs that induce an altered state of consciousness. The altered state of consciousness typically produces an alteration in EEG, resulting in a profile where theta waves are dominant and blood pressure drops to low levels, while at the same time the pulse rate increases (Goodman 1972 377–379; cf. Winkelman 2000 on the physiology of altered states of consciousness).

In cases of demonic possession, a possessing spirit is essentially evil, an invader whose goal is to do harm and who will leave only after a sometimes very difficult exorcism has been performed. Though demons are occasionally considered useful for the information they can give, they always attempt to do harm to their victims and the people around them. Someone possessed by a demon does not desire this experience; rather, the demon is asked to enter by someone else through a curse or a similarly harmful ritual. If such a spirit has entered, then the victim or the victim’s family must find someone who can perform the appropriate exorcism. Otherwise, the possession is likely to end in the victim’s eventual death.

Demonic possession can cause various types of illness; it falls loosely into two distinguishable categories based on the cultural expectations of the people involved, although these categories do not exhaust all cases of negative possession. Possessions originating within the large agricultural societies of sub-Saharan Africa differ from those originating within the agricultural societies of Eurasia. The exorcism rituals for each are different. The African type typically involves rough handling within a death and rebirth ritual. The entity expelled is conceived of as a ghost, that is, a spirit of a once living person. The Eurasian type involves communicating directly with the demon and demanding from it its name, purpose for entering, and the conditions on which it will leave. The entity here is usually an inherently evil spirit with no past as a human.

Many of the agricultural societies of Africa have developed rich cultural systems around positive possession. Possession is used for healing and divining, as well as to meet other diverse social needs. The spirits involved are considered helpful and benevolent. The spirits themselves are viewed as benefiting from the exchange—people keep them alive by offering them sacrifices and allow them to participate in the social process by lending the spirits their bodies. Such beings enter only when invited and leave at the ritually appropriate time.

Some entities are used in negative ways. In most negative African possessions, the invading demon is a ghost, that is, a spirit of a dead person. In 1969 Elizabeth Colson wrote about Tonga ghosts of Zambia: “Ghost possession [is] wholly undesirable. Victim and helpers seek only to expel a ghost and prevent its re-entry. The ghost has no message to give, either public or private; it has no desire to be appeased. Ghosts have no mediums, only victims, and these must be short-term ones; either a ghost is expelled or the victim dies.”

This description applies to most other African ghost possessions. The Voudou practices of Haiti, known popularly in the United States as voodoo, provide another good example. Voudou is a contemporary descendant of native African religious practices brought to Haiti when members of different African groups were transported there as slaves. Cases have been described where an otherwise healthy person becomes suddenly sick and unable to eat.

When other cures are unsuccessful, the person may be brought to a mambo, or priestess, for an exorcism. The illness is thought to be the result of a curse from someone who wished the victim harm. A person wishing to make such a curse must first invoke the deity Saint Expédit and the Master of the Dead, Baron-Samedi, and then make an offering at a graveyard, and take handfuls of grave dirt and put them in a place where the victim regularly passes. To rid someone of a ghost possession, the mambo must perform an elaborate exorcism, which may involve spitting rum in the face of the patient and killing a hen by burying it alive at the roots of a banana tree. Shortly after the conclusion of an exorcism ceremony, the victim should regain health and be able to return to regular daily life.

In exorcism rituals of the African type, the patient is handled roughly and made to go through much physical discomfort. At the close of the ritual, the patient is cleaned and given fresh clothes and food or milk to consume. The ritual as a whole can be seen as representing a death and rebirth, endured so that the victim can be reborn without the encumbering spirits.

In demonic possessions of the African type, the invading beings are usually undifferentiated ghosts without individual personalities. In possessions of the Eurasian type, on the other hand, the invaders are generally creatures of evil with individual characteristics and even names. They may claim to be dammed people, fallen angels, or simply evil spirits. As in the African type, Eurasian demons may enter a victim through a curse or an act of witchcraft. Demons are also thought to enter when the person breaks a significant taboo or commits a serious crime.

Typically, a person experiencing an African demonic possession will not have direct communication with the possessing being, nor will it usually take control of the body. In the usual cases of Eurasian demonic possession, on the other hand, the invading demon may cause the victim to act in unusual ways, hurting others or causing self-injury, or the demon may speak through the victim’s mouth, announcing its presence.

Eurasian possessions usually include periods of depression and frightening visions, interspersed with sudden episodes in which a demon appears to take complete control of the victim’s body. These attacks have a clear onset, where the victim exhibits all the signs of entering into a religious altered state of consciousness. Eurasian demonic possessions also have their own particular set of symptoms (although they are not necessarily all present in any given case) including insomnia, aimless wandering, compulsively eating strange or repulsive substances (or else refusing to eat at all), a repulsive stench, rigid muscles, unusual strength, fits of screaming or weeping, a significant change in facial features as a result of muscle contractions, and violent aggression against oneself, nearby people, or objects.

When the demon takes control, it will speak through the person’s mouth but with a deeper, harsher voice. This may be because in this altered state the person’s true vocal cords are not used, but rather the ventricular folds (the superior or false vocal cords). Also, the speech of the demon has been found to have a characteristic intonation pattern. Each phrase has an early peak followed by descending intonation. In this state the demon yells invectives and obscenities, and, if in a Christian context, it speaks of damnation and insults religious figures. The demon may also make predictions relating to the Church.

A person possessed must seek an exorcism; otherwise the possession will end in death from wasting away or from the demon forcing the victim to commit suicide. Different cultures have different qualifications for someone performing an exorcism. An experienced sorcerer, shaman, or priest may be necessary. For a Catholic priest to perform an exorcism, he must first get permission from a bishop, rarely given today. The Roman Catholic exorcism ritual was last committed to writing in the seventeenth century in the Rituale Romanum. It is a rite and not a sacrament, which means that the acting priest has considerable freedom in varying the details.

The Eurasian exorcist’s ritual involves little physical handling; the only physical contact between the exorcist and patient is the laying on of hands. The possessed person may also be made to touch sacred objects. In such a ritual there are a few standard steps. The exorcist appeals to the relevant benevolent entities of the alternate reality. The demon will be pushed into revealing its name and its reason for entering into the patient. It is finally asked for the conditions upon which it will leave and when it will depart.

In some cultures it is common for a demon to request that the family give a large feast or that a ritual drama be performed in its honor. Commonly the demon will name a specific time in the future, at which point it will leave. The contract of a demon is always maintained, but when a demon does go that does not always end the victim’s troubles. In some cases multiple demons will claim to inhabit a body. When one is driven out, another may come forward, with a new name, personality, and new conditions for going.

Most demons will resist strongly the attempt to exorcise them. It may not be until after many sessions of exorcism (in which the presence of holy objects or the reading of holy texts has tortured the demons) that they announce their time or conditions for leaving.

Accounts of these possessions and exorcisms are widespread and ancient. In the Christian New Testament, the Book of Mark tells of a successful exorcism preformed by Jesus. Jesus encounters a possessed man who lives in tombs and who cries and cuts himself with stones. Jesus asks the demon its name, to which it replies “My name is Legion: for we are many” (Mark 3:7–9). The demons beg to stay, then finally ask to enter a large herd of swine. Jesus allows it, and the demons possess the swine, sending them over a cliff and into the sea to drown, at which point the man is cured. In a work of third-century C.E. Greek writer Flavius Philostratus, a magician named Apollonios of Tyana is reported to have cured a young possessed boy. In this story, however, Apollonios writes a letter, and the exorcism is achieved by having the boy’s mother read the letter out loud to the demon.

Exorcisms seem to have been occurring for thousands of years all over the world and continue today. For example, in the 1970s a well-publicized case occurred in Germany. A twenty-three-year-old woman named Anneliese Michel experienced a severe demonic possession. She went first to the medical establishment, but they were little help. She eventually found a priest who would perform an exorcism, and he did so regularly for almost a year. During this time the demons claimed to be the spirits of Cain; Judas; Nero; Adolf Hitler; an obscure, but documented, Pastor Fleischmann; and even Lucifer. They claimed to have entered her as a result of a curse that was put on her before she was born. The exorcism was unfortunately unsuccessful, and Anneliese died in July 1976.

Most exorcisms, however, are successful. Anneliese might have died because of the interference of the psychoactive medication that medical professionals gave her over the same period, which gradually made it impossible for her to enter the trance state necessary for the exorcism to be performed properly.

Much has been written attempting to explain possession phenomena scientifically. The illnesses of possessions of the African type may have physical origins. The exorcism is then seen as a psychosomatic cure. The possessions associated with an altered state of consciousness have interesting parallels to various behaviors diagnosed as psychological disorders. Demonic possession is an illness, not a normal or desired condition. Demon possession has particular signs and symptoms that do not exactly correcorrespond with the symptoms of any psychological ailment. Possession cannot simply be reduced to psychological disorders. Furthermore, exorcism usually provides a successful cure in cases of negative possession, one that would be difficult to achieve through medical or psychiatric processes. Whatever the explanation, such exorcisms are important to people who need them and to those interested in the range of human experience. They should not be disregarded by modern research.

By Felicitas D. Goodman and Seth Josephson in "Shamanism - An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Pratices, and Culture" vol. 1, edited by Mariko Namba Walter and Eva Jane Newmann Fridman,ABC-CLIO, USA, 2004, excerpts pp. 74-77. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.