Intro to Spirit Possession

Debating Spirit Possession:

An Introduction Jack Hunter

Monday, 5 November 2012

What is Spirit Possession?

• Spontaneous Spirit Possession as the cause of illness -illness is believed to be caused by intruding spiritual beings. Usually requires some form of ritual exorcism.

• Deliberate Spirit Possession (Spirit Mediumship) - provides a link to the spirit world for healing/divination and so on.

• Characterised by altered states of consciousness (trance) and altered behaviours (performance).


A Definition[Spirit Possession] commonly refers to the hold over a human being by external forces or entities more powerful than she. These forces may be ancestors or divinities, ghosts of foreign origin, or entities both ontologically and ethnically alien...Possession, then, is a broad term referring to an integration of spirit and matter, force or power and corporeal reality, in a cosmos where the boundaries between an individual and her environment are acknowledged to be permeable, flexibly drawn, or at least negotiable (Boddy 1994:407)


Evaluating Theories• Spirit possession is a good case study

for evaluating the many different theories of religion. We will examine the following theoretical approaches:

• Pathology

• Social Functionalism

• Cognitive Approaches


Spirit Possession as Pathology

• The earliest anthropologists defined spirit possession as pathological in nature.

• James Frazer wrote:

‘The belief in temporary inspiration is worldwide. Certain persons are supposed to be possessed from time to time by a spirit or deity, while the possession lasts, their own personality lies in abeyance; the presence of the spirit is revealed by convulsive shivering and shakings of the man’s whole body, by wild gestures and excited looks, all of which are referred not to the man himself, but to the spirit which has entered into him; and in this abnormal state all his utterances are accepted as the voice of the god or spirit dwelling in him or speaking through him’ (Frazer 1993 [1890]: 108)


Spirit Possession bears surface similarities to:

• Epilepsy

• Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder)


Dissociative Identity Disorder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iHJfIH20TYMonday, 5 November 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iHJfIH20TY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iHJfIH20TY

But...• In many societies spirit possession is a desirable state that brings

high status (as we shall see).

• A ‘disorder’ is defined as a condition that ‘disrupts normal functioning.’ In many societies spirit possession is ‘normal,’ so can it really be classed as a disorder?

• There are neurophysiological differences between spirit possession and disorders such as epilepsy and DID (Oohashi et al. 2002)

• Moreira-Almeida et al. have compared DID patients with Brazilian Spiritist mediums and found that ‘mediums differed in having better social adjustment, lower prevalence of mental disorders, lower use of mental health services, no use of anti-psychotics, and lower prevalence of histories of physical or sexual childhood abuse, sleepwalking, secondary feature of DID, and symptoms of borderline personality’ (Moreira-Almeida et al. 2008:420)














Social Functionalism

• Drawing on the work of theorists like Emile Durkheim and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown who suggest that religion performs the function of maintaining the social order/structure.


Social Protest• Arguably the most influential social

functionalist theory is I.M. Lewis’ theory of spirit possession as a form of socially sanctioned protest for low status, or peripheral, groups.

• ‘women’s possession cults are...thinly disguised protest movements directed against the dominant sex. They thus play a significant part in the sex-war in traditional societies and cultures where women lack more...direct means for forwarding their aims...the women who succumb to these afflictions are...totally blameless; responsibility lies not with them, but with the spirits.’ (Lewis 1971:31)


Zar Possession

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKqLucGy1roMonday, 5 November 2012

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But...• Not all traditions of spirit possession

practice fit neatly into this scheme.

• Susan Rasmussen explains how amongst the Kel Ewey Tuareg ‘women are not subjugated, but enjoy high status and prestige’ and yet continue to practice spirit possession (Rasmussen 1994:76)

• Donovan (2000) suggests that although Lewis’ theory fits many spirit possession traditions, it should not be taken as a complete theory, rather it should be supplemented by other approaches.


Cognitive Theories• Emma Cohen suggests that spirit possession

is a product of normal cognitive processes, which explains its cross-cultural presence (a ‘panhuman cognitive function.’)

• Pathogenic Possession results from ‘the operation of cognitive tools that deal with the representation of contamination (both positive and negative.)’

• Executive possession ‘mobilises cognitive tools that deal with the world of intentional agents.’ (Cohen 2008:2)


But...

• Is this approach overly reductive?


What is being left out?

• The experience of the possessed

• Complexity of the phenomenon (social, cultural, biological & experiential)


The Experience of the Possessed

• Janice Boddy suggests:

Such approaches [physiological and social-functional] may prove fruitful in assessing and translating specific cases of possession illness, but since they neither account for possession forms, nor adequately credit the taken-for-grantedness of spirits in the everyday lives of the possessed, ultimately they distort and impoverish what they propose to understand. If the aim of the enterprise is to comprehend the scope of possession phenomena, to situate them in their cultural contexts, ethnographers must attend to their informants’ experiences of possession and not seek merely to explain them away as something at once less dramatic and more clinical than they appear (Boddy 1988:4)


Unusual ExperiencesOnce we’re out in the Lodge...I sit down [and] feel a calmness wash over and the music starts. I love the first couple of tracks but usually find they’ve gone very quickly...I’m still very much aware of the room but find that I’ve often missed bits of time...For the first half of the evening I have absolutely no awareness of what’s going on externally...Often now, when they are talking I’ll go back into myself and I get a strange sensation of vertigo and being detached from the conversation, not just intellectually but physically as well (Interview with Jon in Hunter 2009:74).


The Experience of the Possessed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRlUy2dyBQAMonday, 5 November 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRlUy2dyBQA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRlUy2dyBQA

Complexity: Performance

Although in the early moments of the trance there may be some uncontrolled movements, the medium must quickly gain control if his or her activity is to be interpreted as representing possession by a supernatural being. It is certainly not enough to fall on the floor and thrash around, or stagger about, or make incoherent sounds, or give other evidence of having some kind of unusual psychological experience. The meaning of this kind of behaviour is ambiguous in Batuque beliefs...In order to prove that an encantado is really present, the medium must dance, sing the proper songs, and interact with the other participants in the ceremony in an acceptable manner. The behaviour that is most admired in the accomplished medium is very often the behaviour that appears the least frenzied and the most normal to the outside observer (Leacock & Leacock 1975:171-172).


Complexity: Performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrCFtojoy7Q




Complexity:Performance

• “[f]ull possession behaviour is highly skilful” requiring “mastery of playing and of subtle, specialised kinds of communally significant communication” (Levy et al. 1996:18)


So What is Going on?• Trance is not a single, easy to define,

phenomenon but rather represents ‘a continuum of psychobiological changes that vary from slight emotional arousal to the ideal possession state’ (Halloy 2010:68)

• Need for multiple perspectives on a phenomenon that emerges at the intersection of biology, culture, society and psychology.


Cognitive Empathetic Engagement

• Fiona Bowie suggests:

...we need to re-evaluate the relationship between first, second and third order discourses, and to propose a dialogue that is respectful and tentative, rather than hegemonic and dismissive of ‘the native point of view’ (Bowie in press)


ReferencesBoddy, J. (1988). ‘Spirits and Selves in Northern Sudan: The Cultural Therapeutics of Possession and Trance.’ American Ethnologist, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 4-27.

Boddy, J. (1994). ‘Spirit Possession Revisited: Beyond Instrumentality.’ Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 23, pp. 407-434.

Bowie, F. (In Press). ‘Building Bridges, Dissolving Boundaries: Towards a Methodology for the Ethnographic Study of the Afterlife, Mediumship and Spiritual Beings.’

Cohen, E. (2008). ‘ What is Spirit Possession? Defining, Comparing and Explaining Two Possession Forms.’ Ethos, Vol. 73, No. 1, pp. 101-126.

Donovan, J.M. (2000). ‘A Brazilian Challenge to Lewis’s Explanation of Cult Mediumship.’ Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 361-377.

Frazer, J.G. (1993 [1890]). The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. Hertordshire: Wordsworth Editions.

Halloy, A. (2010). ‘Comments on ‘The Mind Possessed: The Cognition of Spirit Possession in an Afro-Braziliain Religious Tradition’ by Emma Cohen.’ Religion and Society: Advances in Research, Vo.1, pp. 25-80.

Leacock, S & Leacock, R. (1975). Spirits of the Deep: A Study of an Afro-Brazilian Cult. New York: Anchor Press.

Levy, R.I., Mageo, J.M., Howard, A. (1996). “Gods, Spirits, and History”. In J.M. Mageo, & Howard (eds) (1996). Spirits in Culture, History, and Mind. London: Routledge.

Lewis, I.M. (1971). Ecstatic Religion: An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism. London: Penguin Books.

Moreira-Almeida, A. et al. (2008). ‘Comparison of Brazilian Spiritis Mediumship and Dissociative Identity Disorder.’ Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Vol. 196, No. 5, pp. 420-424.

Oohashi, T. et al. (2002). ‘Electroencephalographic Measurement of Possession Trance in the Field.’ Clinical Neurophysiology, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 435-445.

Rasmussen, S.J. (1994). ‘The Head Dance: Contested Self, and Art as Balancing Act in Tuareg Spirit Possession.’ Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 74-98.


Intro to Spirit Possession

Documents

sexual childhood

mental health

spirit possessionand

dissociative

societies

mental disorders

spirit possession

possession