Spiritual possession: Encyclopedia - Spiritual possession

Spiritual possession

Spiritual possession is a concept of many religions and tales, where it is believed that a demon, or disincarnate being, may take temporary control of a human body, resulting in noticeable changes in behaviour.

The term demonic possession is used when the spirit is malignant (a demon), whereas incorporation or channelling may be used in the case of supposed benign spirits. Channelling is the claimed receipt of information or commands by a person functioning as a medium or channel for a spirit or other source. This often involves a seance. Channeling may also entail spiritual possession, where a spiritual being comes through the receiving person's body. Many believe that channeling is distinct from a possession, and the concept has yet to have been conclusively verified in a scientific fashion. Many people claiming to be channel have been exposed as hoaxes.

The concept is quite old and widespread in the history of religion. The concept was popularised in the West by Helena Blavatsky the founder of theosophy. The claim is also made by many other Spiritualist religions, such as Kardecism.

According to the religious scholar Wouter J. Hanegraaff, the difference between channeling and spiritism is that the first conveys extensive philosophical and religious messages and belief systems, not just short messages from the deceased or other entities.

Brazilian psychic surgeons, such as José Arigó, claim to work as channels for deceased surgeons.

Spiritual possession - Religious views

Some religions — in particular, most Abrahamic religions — do not admit the existence of beneficial spiritual possessions; so, if they admit the concept at all, they automatically consider any spiritual possession as malign. Many of those religions, most notably Roman Catholicism, have ritual practices to drive out (exorcize) the evil spirit.

Charismatic Christianity does contain a tradition of individuals being possessed by the Holy Spirit, and either Speaking in tongues, or experiencing some other manifestation of possession.

Many other creeds, including Shamanism and many African and Afro-American religions, teach that spiritual possession may be benign as well as malign, and their rituals often include incorporation: either of spiritual deities, such as the Orisha of the Yoruba, or of the ghosts of deceased people, as in Kardecism. Depending on the religion, the person who is possessed may be a priest, or a specially gifted medium, or a lay member.

Spiritual possession - Scientific view

Science does recognize that "possession" exists, but only in the sense that some people occasionally behave in a way that fits the expected behavior of a possessed people. However, in spite of many attempts, it has not been able to find any reproducible proof of the existence of "spiritual beings"; therefore, it finds much easier to explain such altered mental state by natural causes, such as stress, mental illness, intoxication, use of drugs, etc.. Just as migraine headaches have recently been proposed as a fitting explanation for many historical cases of spiritual visions, it may be that many cases of spiritual possession were in fact epileptic attacks.

Some cases of demonic possession may also be explainable by purely psychological or social causes, e.g. hysteria — roughly, a grown-up versions of children tantrums. In fact this explanation was liberally mis-applied since the 19th century. In the past, demonic possession may also have been alleged (by the subject or by others) for the purpose of excusing behavior which would otherwise be severely punished — not unlike a defendant falsely claiming temporary insanity in today's court of law.

Incarnations are often feigned by dishonest priests and mediums for fraudulent puposes, e.g. by pretending to communicate with someone's deceased relatives in exchange for payment of "donations". The famous U.S. escape artist Houdini was instrumental in exposing several such frauds in the 1920s.

Spiritual possession - Historical cases

The Salem witch trials (1692) followed a notable string of cases of alleged demonic possession.

Spiritual possession - Books

Several notable books describe entering a trance state to allow a dead or other-dimensional being to speak through them. It's claimed that a guide conveys messages from other spirit men to listeners (see seance), in which case two intermediaries are needed, one on each side of the heavenly divide for a conversation between a living person and a dead one.

In Unknown But Known: My Adventure Into The Meditative Dimension (1969) by Arthur Ford, he describes seances he conducted for several different groups of people. He sat in a chair or laid down to enter a trance. He claimed a spirit man known as Fletcher spoke through him. Those for whom the seance was conducted would typically ask Fletcher to put them into contact with departed loved ones or perhaps famous people. (Interestingly, the chapter, "The Sun Myung Moon Sittings", was removed from the book in editions printed after Rev. Moon gained notoriety. The seances conducted for Rev. Moon and his disciples included strong testimonies from several spirit men, including Fletcher himself, all but averring that Rev. Moon was the Messiah.)

In The Coming of Seth (1966) New Age spiritual medium Jane Roberts describes extra-sensory perception experiments and the beginnings of her experiences speaking for Seth.

Opening to Channel: How to Connect with your Guide (1987) by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer describes how to channel a spirit guide.

• A Course in Miracles text allegedly from Jesus channeled by Helen Schucman
• The Book of the Law text
• Conversations with God text allegedly from God channeled by Neale Donald Walsch
• The Indigo Children text
• Kryon text
• Oahspe text
• Messages From Michael
• Seth entity channeled by Jane Roberts
• Toward the Light text
• The Urantia Book text
• Michael Teachings
• Ramtha entity channeled by JZ Knight

Spiritual possession - In fiction

Spiritual possession, especially malign, has been a favorite theme of fictional works, especially in horror novels and films. The movie The Exorcist (1973) may be the best-known example of the latter. A version of benign possession is Deadman, a ghostly superhero who uses his possession ability in the cause of justice.

Spiritual possession, though not necessarily malign, also appears as a secondary theme in The Dune Chronicles, a series of novels written by Frank Herbert. The video game Geist's primary game mechanic revolves around possessing people, animals and objects in order to progress.

In fantasy literature, the term channelling is sometimes used in other ways, particularly to describe a person's ability to draw on some form of magical power. For example, the Wheel of Time series uses the term extensively (although it is by no means the only work to do so).

See also

Related ideas:

• Spiritualist Church
• Automatic writing
• Automatic drawing

Spiritual possession - Reference

• Klimo, John (1987). Channeling: Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources. St. Martins Press. ISBN 0874774314.
• Max Heindel, The Web of Destiny (Chapter I - Part III: "The Dweller on the Treshold"--Earth-Bound Spirits, Part IV: The "Sin Body"--Possession by Self-Made Deamons--Elementals, Part V: Obsession of Man and of Animals), ISBN 0-911274-17-0, www

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Spiritual possession", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki