Spirit Possession – II
The subject of spirit possession is not well understood in our society; moreover, it has a somewhat unsavory connotation and is not mentioned openly, nor considered a serious topic for discussion. In fact, lots of people are possessed by spirits without knowing it. In this essay we will take a quick survey of the whole subject of possession.
The most common form of possession – which is also the most dangerous – is possession by other people. This is because in the entire universe, including all the hell worlds, there are no demons which are as malignant, tenacious, and gratuitously cruel as our fellow humans.
Possession by other people occurs whenever we let them impose their feelings upon us. Any time we allow ourselves to feel another person’s mood, we are temporarily possessed by that person. When we experience a great work of art, or even a gripping TV show, we are allowing ourselves to be possessed by the artist, and by the spirits who inspired him or her.
Most children are possessed by their parents unless they’re super-rebellious hellions from the cradle on; and infatuation is a species of mutual possession. These types of possession are called “being under the shadow” of another person. This is not necessarily a bad thing; all forms of apprenticeship and learning involve putting oneself under another person’s shadow. What is being passed from the teacher to the learner is wholly subconscious and emotional; i.e., possession entails a direct transference of knowledge (assurance), no matter what intellectual symbols – beliefs or techniques – it may be wrapped up in. To be possessed by another person means to allow oneself to be emotionally directed by that person.
Being under the shadow of another person only becomes detrimental when the shadow is imposed by coercion, through fear or guilt. Most parent / child relationships and marriages have at least a tinge of these elements. Basically the only way of casting off the shadow of another person (once it’s in place) is by diminishing one’s own self-importance, so the other person is left with nothing to manipulate. It is usually much more difficult, traumatic, time-consuming, and painful to cast off the shadow of another person than it is to exorcise a demon.
Demon possession is also a common form of possession. Most of the people who are habitually, obsessively angry, fearful, repressed, depressed, irritable, self-destructive, chronically ill, etc. are demon-possessed. Mainstream psychotherapy’s rejection of the notion of demon possession is totally absurd: it’s like trying to formulate a science of physics while rejecting the calculus – you can still do it, but are handicapping yourself unnecessarily. Practically all mental illnesses are symptoms of demon possession, and while they can be treated without reference to the underlying problem, this is not a very skillful way of doing it.
People call demons in to possess them when they feel vulnerable and in need of drastic protection and security. Demons give them strength – rationalizations, shamelessness, hard-heartedness, self-pity – with which to fend off the attacks of other people and the buffeting of circumstances. An infant may call a demon in at birth to protect him from his parents; a dying person may call one in to dull the emotions in the face of overwhelming fear. Demons can be called in any time to cover vulnerability with hardness. Usually the decision to call in a demon is made in dreamless sleep (i.e. unconsciously).
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