Possession, Demoniacal And Other

by T K Oesterreich

  The first is the L. case. The girl in question, aged eighteen years, believed herself to be “bewitched” by a hunter’s boy of her acquaintance, and in a part of her fits (in which, however, she retained full consciousness), the latter spoke through her mouth:

  She seemed (writes the exorcist who narrates the case) of a mortal pallor and dragged her limbs languidly; she complained to me of her attack (the fit which was approaching), and that the Evil One in the person of T. (the hunter’s boy) had spoken by her mouth, as I had already heard myself in one of her paroxysms.4

  And he relates of another fit:

  … Thereupon she made as if to raise herself from the ground, which she had not the strength to do, and cried out in a masculine voice: “I am a good fellow! I am …” (the name of the young hunter follows in a periphrasis).5

  The second case is taken from an English author:6

  Miss A. B., a young woman of about thirty, experienced a sudden and demonstrative attachment for a man, C. D., living in the same neighbourhood. The affair attracted some unpleasant notoriety, and the young man, who had apparently acted a rather passive part throughout, abruptly discontinued the acquaintance. Miss A. B. continued, however, to cherish the belief that the man had been influenced by the malice of her enemies, and that he was still profoundly attached to her. A few weeks after the breach she felt one evening a curious feeling in the throat, as of choking—the prelude probably, under ordinary circumstances, to an attack of hysteria. This feeling was succeeded by involuntary movements of the hands and a fit of long-continued and apparently causeless sobbing. Then in presence of a member of her family she became, in her own belief, possessed by the spirit of C. D., personating his words and gestures and speaking in his character. After this date she continually held conversation, as she believed, with C. D.’s spirit; “he” sometimes speaking aloud through her mouth, sometimes conversing with her in the inner voice. Occasionally “he” wrote messages through her hand, and I have the testimony of a member of her family that the writing so produced resembled that of C. D. Occasionally also A. B. had visions, in which she claimed to see C. D. and what he was doing at the moment. At other times she professed to hear him speaking or to understand by some inner sympathy his feelings and thoughts.

  Given the mass of fanciful nonsense with which we constantly have to deal in this subject, it is hardly a matter for surprise that no notice has been taken of the difficulty in these two cases of the possessing spirit being at once in his own organism and in a strange one.

  Finally, there is “animal possession”; it is no longer a strange human being or a demon who speaks through the possessed, but an animal. But we shall have to return to these primitive phenomena when reviewing possession outside the European sphere of civilization.

  The strange individuality which has ostensibly entered into the patient always speaks of himself in the first person; when the mouth of the possessed says “I,” this almost always means the intruder and not himself.

  This is already abundantly clear in the New Testament cases of possession, but still more so in detailed modern accounts. Here, for example, is Gerber’s description of the maid of Orlach:

  But the transformation of personality is absolutely marvellous. It is very difficult to give a name to this state; the girl loses consciousness, her ego disappears, or rather withdraws to make way for a fresh one. Another mind has now taken possession of this organism, of these sensory organs, of these nerves and muscles, speaks with this throat, thinks with these cerebral nerves, and that in so powerful a manner that the half of the organism is, as it were, paralyzed. It is exactly as if a stronger man drove the owner from his house and looked out of the window at his ease, making himself at home. For no loss of consciousness intervenes a conscious ego uninterruptedly inhabits the body. The mind which is now in this girl knows perfectly well, even better than before, what is going on around it; but it is another occupant who dwells in the house.1

  Before pursuing our explanations further, I shall add two quotations which will serve as examples of the dialogues which are generally carried on between the demon and the spectators. The contents are for the most part very commonplace.

  The first dialogue is taken from a seventeenth century narrative concerning a little twelve-year-old servant girl who was possessed:

  … David Brendel, who for eleven weeks remained night and day beside the little girl, had amongst others these two remarkable conversations with Satan.

  In the first place he asked the evil spirit if he had also been with the beloved Job and the daughter of the woman of Cana. And the devil replied yes, that he had helped to persecute them finely.

  BRENDEL. Have you also been with the blacksmith’s daughter up in the clearing at Meissen?

  THE DEVIL. Yes, there were a hundred of my companions there; I helped to take the rich man to hell.

  B. Do you also know the traitor Judas?

  D. He sits beside me in hell.

  B. Did you also know the unrepentant Thief, Pilate, Herod, Dr. Johannes Faustus, Christoph Wagner, and Johannes de Luna?

  D. Oh, they are my best friends. I have in hell the letter of

  Faust written with his blood.

  B. Does it not burn?

  D. Oh no!

  B. Of what use is it to you?

  D. I must have it so that I may produce it and convict him thereby.

  B. As you know so many things, do you also know how to pray?

  D. I shall shit down your neck.

  B. What would you do to me, if you had me in your power?

  D. I should break your neck, and my face would be distorted with rage.

  After that, when Satan had exercised his cruel tyranny to his heart’s content and revealed many strange mysteries which must not be spoken of, he began to cry out frightfully by the mouth of the little servant girl, and said: “You are minded to send for the Lord and Master.”

  B. You are not far from the mark! (And he began to read aloud a prayer).

  D. Ha! ha! ha! I learnt to read long before you did!

  D. If you boast of being a conjuror, we men know more than you, for we can pray and you cannot. D. No, I shall never be able to do that again.1

  The following extract dates from the beginning of the nineteenth century:

  … While the fit was upon her the possessed woman uttered the lamentations of the damned in the following terms:

  I, to be damned! I so young! Oh, how richly I deserve it all! I will curse to all eternity those who are the cause!

  QUES. Who are they?

  ANS. My parents; but it shall be my pleasure to torment them eternally, them and Calvin.

  QUES. Why Calvin?

  ANS. I am the wretched Maury whom he wished to use in order to produce the belief that he would work miracles. I deserved it all. She also, his wife. As for her, I will reproach her eternally with being the cause of my horrible torments. I should have loved your God so much, and I am damned so young!

  Q. What age were you then?

  A. Twenty-three years. But nevertheless I have deserved it all, for I was a Catholic. But I denied everything. Do not do as I did. Do not follow my example: an eternity! … always to suffer! … endlessly! and already for so long … and no one thinks of it thus!

  Q. You have been suffering for more than three hundred years?

  A. If only after three hundred thousand times as much I had a minute (of rest)! … But no … eternity.… How long the word is! … If a confessor had come (to see me before my death), perhaps I should have had some remorse.… But no! Yes, I will curse him eternally.… Do not follow my example.… I should have blessed him through all eternity, your God.… I should have had a reign of glory, instead of which I have a reign of eternal wretchedness.… Calvin bid people to murder the Catholics who would not change their religion.… If every three hundred thousand (years) I had a minute (of rest)! … But no! … an eternity! …

  Q. How were your parents the cause of your downfall?

>   A. They consented to this religion (they were converted) and let me marry a Protestant.… If only I had a minute (of rest)! I do not even ask for a minute, only half a minute.

  Q. Do the torments of hell grow greater or else do they remain always the same?

  A. How could they grow greater, since they are infinite? . . Oh! to have seen them once, and never see them again, these frightful (spectacles?)…. I am one with the demon, I died with the demon, and I shall be with the demon eternally.…2

  The strange individuality even frequently relates a sort of life-history. It is hardly necessary to add that these are a matter of pure imagination or reminiscences (the patient’s memories) of the real life of the personality which is supposed to have entered into the organism.

  One of these verbal autobiographies of a “possessing spirit” set forth in detail, is found in the “Geschichten” of Kerner. It begins thus:

  In my lifetime I was called Caspar B——r (the possessed is a woman of thirty-one years) and I was born in 1783. I went to school, but learnt nothing. Nothing entered into me, and at the time of confirmation I had neither faith nor reason. At home the most important thing, good upbringing of the children, was lacking. My father was sometimes too severe, my mother always too kind; she believed all that I said and I lied continually. I disowned my father and he was perfectly aware of it. When that put him into a rage, I insulted him repeatedly, as well as my mother. Once when I was angry I shook my father and took him by the throat. I learnt milling, but did no good at it; I was inclined to drink and forgot myself with persons of the opposite sex. One of them became pregnant by me. I denied stubbornly that I was the father of the child. I said formerly that I had cleared myself on oath, but that is not true; it is true, however, that I drove the girl to take an oath. When she had sworn she said to me: “This oath will weigh upon your soul.” From that minute onwards I had no rest. The devil blinded me and for a long time I nursed the idea of killing the woman, but nothing came of it. I ran after other women, and thought no more of her and the child. Another girl was got with child by me, but I denied it. I urged her also to take an oath, but she did not take it because she had already been with others; as she too was already corrupted, that affair did not trouble me much. Nevertheless, I fell deeper and deeper into evil ways, became addicted to drink, and committed breaches of trust, for which I could always find opportunity. To tell the truth my conscience often awoke, but uneasiness drove me to the ale-houses and I drowned my worries in drink. When I was drunk, I tried to pick a quarrel. Once, at Kirchberg, at Staffel’s inn, I knocked down the best of my boon companions. He did not remain dead upon the floor, but died soon afterwards of the blows he had received. This affair had no consequences. As for the comrade’s name, I certainly do not know it—I think it was Michel Diller. If my conscience has never been at rest on this new count, I have never repented of what I did. I even went sometimes to communion without acknowledging my sins either before or after nor repenting of them. This only made me sink the deeper in drunkenness. Once I stole a watch from a miller’s boy, but it did not occur to anyone that I might have done the trick. I sold it for a song and soon squandered the money. At the mill I constantly cheated the customers, but I also did one good thing: I sometimes gave the stolen flour to the poor.…1

  All the confessions of “possessing spirits” are analogous; they always consist in admissions of wrong-doing.

  We must now examine whether possession entails division of personality.

  To theology, which until recently has alone had occasion to concern itself with this question, the reality of an inner division in the state of possession is clearly evident. “The patient’s conscience,” we read in Harnack, “his will and sphere of activity are duplicated. In all subjective truth—frauds naturally always (?) creep in—he has the impression that there is within him a second being which dominates and governs him. He thinks, feels, and acts now as the one, now as the other, and with the conviction that he is dual. He confirms himself and confirms those around him in this belief by actions which are coolly deliberate, even if inwardly compulsive. Enforced self-delusion, cunning activity, and helpless passivity are here combined in an uncanny fashion.…”1

  If recent detailed accounts are examined from this point of view, we discover with surprise that such a duplication of consciousness is not by any means present in every case. It is lacking in many, even in most; the demon generally controls only the organism, while the subject has completely lost consciousness of his habitual individuality. In those cases which, as we have said, appear to constitute the great majority, things happen in a manner quite different from that laid down by theology. Eschenmayer, from personal observation of eight cases, considers “loss of consciousness” as the essential characteristic of possession. He believes that there is “a sudden loss of consciousness” and a “total ignorance of what has taken place during the fit.”2

  When the fit occurs, the person immediately loses consciousness, the mind’s ascendancy over the body ceases, and it is a completely strange individuality which inhabits the body and may be apprehended through it.3

  In point of fact, this is true in the majority of cases.

  The transition between the two states is, and we must again emphasize this, scarcely ever continuous; the new ego does not grow gradually stronger at the expense of the old one until the latter has disappeared. Rather the transition is brusque: there is a loss of consciousness and on re-awakening possession has already taken place. Inversely, on the cessation of the fit no memory of it remains. We may give certain examples.

  Case of a girl of eighteen years:

  Before either of the demons spoke, the girl closed her eyes, and when she reopened them she did not know what the demons had said by her mouth.1

  Case of a child of ten observed and related by the professor of Theology, Ch. Kortholtus (1653):

  Throughout the whole duration of the fit, the child knew absolutely nothing of what was happening to or around him; but when he came to himself it seemed to him that he had been asleep all the time. Thus when the fit came on in full daylight and lasted far into the evening (as sometimes happened), the patient, when the evil spirit had gone out of him, could not reconcile himself to the idea that it was already night. When he learnt from anyone after the fit what he had done and said, he could not believe it, and cried when he realized that he had treated someone in a rude or insulting manner. So long as the fit lasted he felt no bodily sensations either, except that the latter became sensible when Satan, on his departure or in bidding good-evening (which he did with filthy words of which chaste ears should remain in ignorance) announced that he was now going to torment him.… At the end of the fit he had the whole appearance of someone awakened out of sleep by fright, for his eyes closed a little and immediately afterwards he started up like a person in a sudden access of terror.2

  The following case also deserves mention:

  Without definite cause she was seized with terrible convulsive fits. They appeared to give rise to a magnetic state in which her own individuality was each time as if abolished. Other persons, dead, so she said, uttered demoniac discourses by her mouth. She awakened from that state to regain her original personality without having the least idea of what had happened to her or what she had said, and was therefore unable to give any informa-whatever about it.…3

  When the demons left her in peace and she came to herself, heard the stories of those who were present and saw the hurts she had received from blows and falls, she dissolved in tears at being in such a state.…4

  Kerner again relates a case observed by him:

  … Suddenly the little girl was tossed convulsively hither and thither in the bed, and this lasted for seven weeks; after which suddenly a quite coarse man’s voice spoke diabolically through the mouth of this eight-year-old child. She could not be brought back to life, for every time the demoniac voice resisted, uttered maledictions, cursed our Saviour and prayer.… Often she tried with a diabolica
l face to beat her father and mother and the onlookers, or else she insulted them, which was not at all in accordance with her character. If these things were related to her afterwards, she did not wish to know anything about them, but cried over what she had done.1

  Johannes Caspar Westphalus reports2 the case of a little girl of ten years, whose fits constantly invaded her normal psychic life, so that on reawakening the patient seemed to be in the middle of the conversation and continuing the same sentence which had been interrupted by the fit in which she had “lost consciousness” (hysteroepilepsy?). Neither François Bayle nor Henri Grameron,3 moreover, found any knowledge or remembrance of the fit in the cases of several women.

  With these cases should be compared the nineteenth-century one described later, which in the transformation resulting from the copy of a character shows close kinship with the case of Hélène Smith turning into Cagliostro. The state of possession, before attaining its full maturity, began by an obvious transformation of the patient’s character into that of a deceased mayor of his locality.