POSSESSION
From time to time we come across cases of demoniacal possession. In
these there is apparently the permanent or temporary domination of
the soul or mind of the victim by an evil spirit or demon of alien
personality.
Cases of possession are invariably claimed as “proofs” of the existence
of spirit intelligence, and in cases where the possession is nominally
at least a mild one the possessed are sometimes quite proud of it. It
is, in fact, exhibited as quaint and dreadful deformity would be--the
phrase is exact. It is a mental deformity.
Now, it must be understood that the psychologists have of late years
made enormous strides in their knowledge of the vagaries of the
subconscious mind. Possession, like “shell shock,” is in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred a perfectly curable disease. It springs
from a perversion of the subconscious state, can be diagnosed by
psychoanalysis and eradicated by transference or by suggestion.
The processes of Christian exorcism often attained the same result.
The wise priest was able to “cast out demons,” and medical science of
to-day, working by analytical methods rather than by rule-of-thumb,
achieves the same results.
Whether one accepts the scientific theory that these “possessions”
are but multiple personalities and that there may be several mental
personalities in the one mind, or whether one believes the idea of
spirit influence, does not much matter. In any case the doors of
the mind can be firmly locked on either spirit or mental disease.
Possession is curable--if the patient really desires to be cured.
Possession can be readily evoked in nearly all hypnotic subjects. Not
only one but several distinct personalities can be developed by the
psychologist. Janet’s experiments developed in Madame B. three separate
individuals: Léonie, known in the waking state as a “possessor”;
Léontine under the light stage of hypnosis, and Léonore in a deeper
condition.[40]
Even a popular knowledge and comprehension of this peculiar disease
of the subconscious is difficult to attain without a sound elementary
grasp of the principles of psychology. The bulk of books on the subject
are written for the medical or scientific mind, but Coriat’s book is a
sound and easily grasped introductory manual.[41]
The normal form of mental trouble is an obsession, the fear or “phobia”
of some perfectly normal thing, a desire to touch objects. There
are dozens of variations of these obsessions which spring to mind.
The state of possession can only be said to exist when the mind is
under the dominance of another individuality distinct from the normal
personality.
It is curious to note that cases of possession by good spirits are
absolutely unknown. A medium may be “controlled” by spirits said to
be good, but this does not amount to a possession. In every case
where normal personality has been overthrown and another or other
personalities take possession we find--evil.
This is to certain extent explicable if we realize that every thought
or wish that occurs to us, and which we _repress_ because it is
bad or evil, is not destroyed or wiped out of existence, but stays as a
suppressed desire or wish buried in the recesses of subconscious mind.
When normal conscious control is overthrown, these subconsciously
stored desires or wishes come bubbling up--a fact that seems to explain
why the language used by nicely brought up girls recovering after the
administration of an anæsthetic would put a coal-heaver to flight.
In the dream state, too, these repressed desires escape all mixed up
from their bondage, a fact which accounts for the peculiar medley of
dreams and their frequent lack of moral balance and accentuation of
sexual characteristics.
The character of a “possessing” demon is in most cases determined by
experiences that the victim has passed through. Shock, neurasthenia,
illness, disappointment; all these may bring about the splitting of
the personality so that the secondary or possessing personality can
overthrow consciousness and take charge.
The victim is often horrified to find his or her mind continually
filled with terrible desires, intolerable passions, and thoughts
utterly repugnant to the sedate conscious self.
Sometimes the idea of possession is stimulated by messages received
through mediums or by automatic writing--this is one of the many
frequent cases where undigested, uneducated Spiritualism is often
abominably harmful. Anything that helps the idea of possession to grow
in the afflicted mind should be avoided.
Gradually the nature of the possession becomes more acutely defined and
is recognized as a different personality--an evil personality resident
in the same body using the same mind. It is in all human probability
only the repressed wishes--all the pent-up unfulfilled evil of a
lifetime taking shape and urging gratification rather than repression
in a new and secondary personality.
Possession by evil spirits is invariably connected with violence and
vice. Sometimes the attacks are periodic; always they are signs of
mental instability and psychic disease. A possessed person is a fit
subject for psychotherapeutic treatment by qualified medical men, but
a source of very real psychic danger in a séance or as a subject for
well-meaning experiments in faith healing by amateurs.
In psychic healing the doctrine of sacrifice and the scapegoat had a
very literal interpretation. The healer often takes upon his own soul
the burden that he lifts from another. This psychic transference can
only be done in safety by certain and specific ways beyond the scope of
this work. It is sufficient to indicate the danger.
Possession in its varying aspects has given rise to many myths and
legends. Larvæ, Incubi, and Succubi were all demons of temporary
possession that tempted man. In the Middle Ages and far later the Faith
strove lustily with them, and where exorcism failed the stake was found
effective.
According to the older writers, Incubi were male demons who possessed
the bodies of mortal women; Succubi, she-devils who seduced the souls
and possessed the bodies of men.
Sorcerers had the power of despatching these erotic demons to gratify
their associates or plague their enemies, and it is notable that this
doctrine of vicarious enjoyment or satisfaction reappears in the
Spiritualist belief in gross and earth-bound souls of sinners who haunt
drinking booths and houses of ill-fame, deriving vicarious satisfaction
from the sins of the living.
The old demonographers give lurid and disgustful accounts of these
“possessions”[42] and insist on their contagious nature. Prosecutions
for sorcery, “possession,” and similar crimes raged throughout the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in the pages of the records we
can trace the Incubi and Succubi now hidden as familiar spirits, now
described as the devil himself, but curiously true in their nature to
the occasional demoniac possessions that trouble the twentieth century.
Even if one admits that the average “possession” is one’s own evil
subconscious personality attempting to overthrow the conscious mind,
certain questions and possibilities arise.
That the astral body or mind can make discarnate journeys is a
well-known fact to all Spiritualists. There is, then, no reason to
suppose that this faculty would be less material in a possessive
personality whose origin was specifically in the dream realm of the
subconscious.
Indeed, it is far more plausible to suppose that the possessor or
demon mind would find it far easier to make the journey than the other
personality, for it is recognized that the release of the actual body
occurs in trance or dream state.
We have here, then, some possible psychic explanation of many of the
cases of sorcery where the complaint of the sufferers was that they
were victimized during sleep by demons. In other words, they were the
recipients of undesired attentions by the astral body of either the
sorcerer or his followers or associates.
This has been suggested to me in various forms by people who have
believed themselves the victims of discarnate spirits--and who were
at times possessed by them against their wills. It must, however,
be admitted that in all such cases which came under my notice there
had been connection with Spiritualist circles or with minor forms of
occultism, and it was impossible to exclude the possibility of previous
hypnosis, autosuggestion, or the little-known but common phenomena of
psychic invasion--by other members of the circle.
Viewed from the psychical point of view, possession is an extremely
difficult problem. Real spirit possession might occur, suggestion or
psychic invasion is often indicated; and, as I have explained, multiple
personality and the concentration of evil repressed desires in the
secondary individuality furnishes a complete scientific explanation of
the phenomenon.
These cases must be taken individually, and there are not yet grounds
for laying down a general explanation of all the phenomena. One of the
great difficulties is the natural reluctance of the victims to disclose
exact details, but no case of possession which was not either openly or
secretly erotic is known to be recorded.
Possessions fall under two heads: those in which the possessing spirit
urges the victim to the commission of injurious acts in person, and
thereby derives direct satisfaction through the body; and those in
which a vicarious satisfaction is achieved through the astral body. The
possibility of intercourse between spirit and mortal has been held to
be a possibility since Biblical times, and the expulsion of the fallen
angels was due to this sin.[43]
Stainton Moses held that much of the lower phenomena was caused by
spirits who had not yet reached man’s plane of intelligence, just as
some was produced by others who had proceeded further and returned
to enlighten man.[44] This belief occurs in folklore, in Oriental
religions, and in a myriad variations.
The djinn of the _Arabian Nights_ is a very real thing to the
modern native, and a considerable literature exists in which the
intercourse between djinn and mortal is the main theme. In the same way
the belief in fairy wives or husbands is not so long dead in Europe and
alive to-day among the hill tribes of the Pamirs.
The whole theory of spirit possession or demon possession is linked
with this idea. In the “possessed” state the victim is unconscious of
deeds done and words said. The blame is the blame of the demon.
In nine cases out of ten frenzy or hysteria accompanies nominal
possession. There are gifts of strange tongues usually said to be
Eastern or Indian, and the possessed pour out streams of gibberish in
which a few dominant words or phrases bearing a slight resemblance to
some known tongue may be distinguished.
Clairvoyance, the gift of prophecy, and other psychic qualities appear
at the time of the seizure. Often there is marked anæsthesia and
insensitiveness to pain. Hot objects may be handled with impunity,
electric shocks are not felt.
These cases are not genuine cases of possession in its worst sense when
they begin, but very frequently the victim is urged by fools to develop
these wonderful powers and the Darker Powers accept the invitation and
step in.
The occultist and the scientist agree about very few things, but both
agree that possession and surrender to possession are the first steps
to moral and physical disaster. The transferable or infectious quality
of possession is not so widely known as it should be, but with the
increase of Spiritualism its effects will in a year or so become
capable of perception by even the most unenlightened.
A girl of my acquaintance, the daughter of wealthy and respectable
Midland parents, became interested in psychic matters. Her faith was
greater than her powers of discernment and she was, like all too many
Spiritualists, of neurotic and hysterical temperament.
Her first actual essays were with automatic writing; then as she was
an art student she tried painting under spirit control. Some slight
success attended her efforts and she became interested in Egyptian
mythology because her spirit paintings were Egyptian in character.
I did not see her frequently, but met her about a year after she had
taken up her Egyptian studies. She stated that in her was reincarnated
the soul of an Egyptian priest. This invading entity dominated her
entire mind and mode of life.
Before, she had been a healthy, normal girl although inclined to be
neurotic, but once given over to this obsession she found that owing
to the psychic change of sex all men were repugnant to her. She was
possessed by a male mind in a female body, and with this extraordinary
inversion of normal feelings was obliged to break off her engagement.
The remainder of her life was short but tragic. Her automatic writings
(which were destroyed after her unhappy death at her own hands)
showed the ascendancy of the possessing demon as it grew over her.
Interspersed with these records were the tragic outpourings of her
soul, her self-analysis of her psychic disaster. There were things
there terrible to read.
It is not perhaps fair to blame psychic science for disastrous
tragedies such as these, but it must be openly admitted that occultism
is not for the multitude.
There is nothing known to-day that was not known in the past, but
Spiritualists and other investigators have discovered a few of the
minor marvels that were known to, but wisely hidden by, the ancients.
Sometimes they are like children playing with a box of drugs, some of
which are active poisons.
One message of consolation, one instance of subconscious telepathy with
a medium, and they are convinced of the truth of Spiritualism and will
not be warned that whatever truth it may hold it also holds Untruth and
Danger as well as Hope.
The threshold between the innocent “control” and the malevolent “demons
of possession” is a very, very narrow one. Sometimes, indeed often,
there is no dividing line at all. The charges that Spiritualism is the
high road to lunacy have these unfortunate occurrences as their basis.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] Pierre Janet: _L’automatisme Psychologique_.
[41] _Abnormal Psychology._ Isador H. Coriat. Rider, 1911.
[42] See _Tableau de L’Inconstance des Démons_. Pierre de Lancre.
[43] Jude VI, 7.
[44] Stainton Moses, _Spirit Identity_, Appendix II.