Possession, Demoniacal And Other
Page 14
2 H. Suso, Deutsche Schriften (in der Originalsprache), ed. by K. Bihlmeyer, Stuttgart, 1907, p. 498.
1 Quoted by Poulain, La Plénitude des grâces, vol. ii.
2 Ibid., vol. ii.
3 Ibid., vol. ii.
4 A. Poulain, Grâces d’oraison, 5th edit., Paris, 1906, p. 395. Scaramelli, Direttorio Mistico, v, 41.
1 M. J. Ribet, La mystique divine, Paris, 1883, vol. iii, pp. 191 sq.
2 Ibid., p. 179.
3 Ibid., pp. 179 sq.
1 Eschenmayer, Konflikt, etc., p. 149.
2 I have not examined further the phenomena thus alluded to.
3 Ibid., pp. 132 sq.
4 Ibid., p. 93.
5 Ibid., p. 13. An explanatory theory of Eschenmayer follows.
1 It is urgently desirable that the detailed psycho-pathological analysis of hysteria should at length be extended to the acute states of hysterical excitement. The accounts and descriptions, some of them classic, of the investigators of that malady: Charcot, Richer, Gilles de la Tourette, Pitres, Janet, Sollier, Binswanger, Hartenberg, etc., are insufficient for the needs of psychology.
2 Journal für Psychologie und Neurologie, viii, p. 62.
1 La Plénitude des grâces, ii, 198.
2 Bibliothèque diabolique, vol. v, Paris, 1866, p. 13, cf. particularly the introduction by the editors Légué and G. de la Tourette, pp. 1–51.
3 Ibid., p. 66.
4 Ibid., p. 67.
5 Ibid., p. 69.
1 Ibid., pp. 70 sq.
1 Ibid., pp. 71 sq.
1 Ibid., pp. 76 sq.
2 Ibid., p. 78.
3 Ibid., pp. 79 sq.
4 Ibid., pp. 86 sq.
5 Ibid., p. 100.
6 Ibid., p. 103.
7 Ibid., pp. 103 sq.
8 Ibid., p. 135.
9 Ibid., p. 168.
10 Ibid., p. 173.
11 Ibid., pp. 174 sq.
1 Ibid., pp. 22 sq.
2 Ibid., pp. 111 sq.
3 Ibid., p. 205.
4 Ibid., pp. 114 sq.
5 Ibid., p. 122.
6 Ibid., p. 175.
CHAPTER IV
THE GENESIS AND EXTINCTION OF POSSESSION. EXORCISM
How does possession originate?
In the majority of cases no differently from any of the other simultaneous duplications of personality. There may be a priori two emotional states, parallel and separate, which co-exist and create at first sight the impression of an inner division of the mind. Or else there are simply compulsions which form the centre of crystallization of possession. As soon as their special psychological character is recognized, the general view of possession current at the time or in the patient’s circle immediately causes these compulsions to be interpreted as arising from a second individuality. According to the disposition of the person affected this may easily and automatically lead to imaginative identification with the second personality; the autosuggestion resulting from distress of mind must favour this. Nevertheless, in looking through the accounts of possession, one hesitates to regard all cases as alike in this respect and to believe that the imposed consciousness of a second personality was always the first cause of possession.
Much more probably it was often rather the conviction of being possessed which brought about a real division of the mind, whereas in the divisions observed to-day the relation is reversed: first there arises a genuine division of the inner life, and then the individual declares himself dual.
The difference is due to the fact that in the times and social circles to which the majority of cases of possession belong, there was a general belief in possession, whereas in our modern civilization this is entirely on the decline. The reign of superstition was responsible for the fact, as the abundance of documents at our disposal show at every step, that the mildest compulsions were immediately taken for demoniacal possession. Modern pathology establishes that these processes do not in themselves represent any real inner division, and we are therefore driven to the inevitable conclusion that by no means all those described as possessed experienced genuine division of personality, for this is not so easily produced by autosuggestion.
Thus it is by no means true that all the numerous saints and ascetics affected by obsessions had dual personalities; apparently scarcely any of them have shown more than the most commonplace compulsions. If our theory is right there has always been either—and we shall regard this as being the rule—unreasoned and muddled acceptance of a prevalent superstition, or, even where it is lucid, purely intellectual and autosuggested conviction of an entirely unreal inner division. Where, however, division does arise, it is entirely primary, “spontaneous,” and does not result from the auto-suggestive action of previous intellectual conviction.
Another very frequent cause of possession is the sight and company of possessed persons. This at once furnishes the explanation of epidemics of this nature.1 Exorcising priests were particularly exposed to this “infection,” and scarcely one of them escaped it completely. L’Histoire des diables de Loudun2, quotes an old writer of the seventeenth century who reports that “the Exorcists almost all participate, more or less, in the effects of the Demons by vexations which they suffer from them, and few persons have undertaken to drive them forth who have not been exercised by them.”3
It is hardly necessary to remark that the true source of this infection is not the mere sight of the possessed but the concomitant lively belief in the demoniacal character of their state and its contagious nature.
A case of such infection has already been met with in the exorcist Surin.
But in the epidemic of Loudun several other exorcists were also affected: Fathers Lactance, Tranquille and Lucas. Detailed accounts of their cases have come down to us.4
We shall meet that of Father Tranquille later. L’Histoire des diables de Loudun reproduces a contemporary narrative concerning Lucas who was stricken immediately after Tranquille:
For when the Extreme Unction was administered to him (Father Tranquille) the demons, feeling the efficacy of this sacrament, were obliged to raise the siege; but it was not in order to go far away, inasmuch as they entered into the body of a good Father, a very excellent Friar who was there present, and have always possessed him since; whom they vexed at first with contortions and agitations very strange and violent, puttings-out of the tongue and most frightful howlings; redoubling their rage again with every unction given to the sick man, and increasing it afresh at the sight of the Most Holy Sacrament which was fetched; because the real presence of this Man and God in one forced them to let die in peace him for whom in this last journey they would have desired to lay some snare. Thus at the moment of his death, in their fury and rage which they had because they could lay no further claim to him, they cried out horribly: “He is dead!” as if to say: “It is all over, we have no further hope of this Soul.” Thereafter, falling more fiercely than ever upon the other poor friar, they agitated him so strangely and terribly that although the Brethren who held him were quite numerous they could not prevent him from aiming kicks at the dead man until he had been carried out of the room; and he remained thus violently and cruelly agitated day and night until after the burial, so that it was always necessary to leave Brethren to assist him.1
Father Lactance (who had expelled three demons from the prioress of Loudun):
“While he was about this work … was much harassed by these evil spirits, and lost in turn sight, memory, and consciousness; suffering from sickness, obsessions of the mind and various other distresses.”
Later he became still worse: “he was always raving and furious during his malady,” until at length he died.2
Calmeil claims, although I do not know on what grounds, that the excitement of the corybantes was of the same infectious character.
Almost always the ancient corybantes, leaping in cadence to the sound of their cymbals, with violent movements of the head, imparted their enthusiasm to those who watched them too closely.3
As in other psychic states, a psychic infection of possession is naturally produced amongst those who live together.4
But there are yet other ways in which possession may arise. One of these begins with a hallucination: the new person is at first corporeally represented as some little distance away. Then it draws near to the individual and suddenly seizes upon him in order to “incarnate” itself in him. The crudest possible conceptions evidently underlie this kind of possession; it is not only a strange soul which enters into man, it is even a strange body!
To this group belongs the case of the maid of Orlach who was obviously a creature of very limited intelligence.1
From the 25th of August onwards the black spirit subjected her to more and more violent temptations; he no longer remained under disguises outside of her, but made himself master, as soon as he appeared, of her whole interior. He entered into her and henceforward uttered by her mouth demoniac discourses.…
From the 24th of August the black monk always appears to her in the same way. In the midst of her work she sees him in human form (a masculine shape in a frock, as if issuing from a dark cloud; she can never clearly describe his face) coming towards her. Then she hears as if he spoke a few brief words to her, for example generally: “Won’t you yet give me an answer? Take care, I shall torment you!” and other similar things. As she stubbornly refuses to answer him, (naturally remaining quite mute), he always continues: “Well, I shall now enter into you in your despite!” Then she sees him approach, always from the left side, feels as it were a cold hand which seizes the back of her neck, and in this way he enters into her. She then loses the sense of her individuality properly so called. She is now no longer present in her body; on the contrary a deep bass voice makes itself heard, not in her person but in that of the monk, with the movement of her lips and with her features, but diabolically distorted.2
Hardly had she arrived there when the black spirit appeared to Magdalene. He now had something white on his head, like a tuft, which stood out in contrast to his dead black colour. He said: “So I’m here again, eh? You are going to cry because this is the last time! You see that there is something white on me.” When he had pronounced these words he went towards her, seized her with a cold hand by the back of the neck, she lost consciousness and he was once more within her.3
In the same primitive way arose the possession of C. St. in Eschenmayer’s case:
Four years ago C. was one day going home from her work when she met in the street the apparition of a woman which spoke to her. Suddenly something like a cold wind blew down her neck as she was speaking, and she at once became as if dumb. Later her voice returned, but very hoarse and shrill.4
From the course of the malady it is clear that the girl, without much education, immediately believed that a spirit had entered into her.
These cases generally illustrate the most primitive way in which states of possession are generated. The strange soul is conceived as a material breath, ψυχή and at its entry into the body it enters also into the mind, as yet incapable of distinguishing itself clearly therefrom.
At so primitive a level of culture and with patients of such enhanced autosuggestibility, it is not surprising that a state of possession should readily arise. The individual at once feels the strange spirit in his mind which is not yet sharply differentiated from his body.
In other instances the autosuggestion of possession breaks out quite unexpectedly, as in the following case observed in Japan and reported by Bälz. The person in question was suffering from exhaustion following typhus and was also nervous from birth. The form of possession is here “animal,” that is to say the victim believes herself possessed not by a human being but by the spirit of an animal.
A girl of seventeen years, irritable and capricious from childhood, was recovering from a very bad attack of typhus. Around her bed sat, or rather squatted in Japanese fashion, female relations chattering and smoking. Everyone was telling how in the dusk there had been seen near the house a form resembling a northern fox. It was suspicious. Hearing this, the sick girl felt a trembling in the body and was possessed. The fox had entered into her and spoke by her mouth several times a day. Soon he assumed a domineering tone, rebuking and tyrannizing over the poor girl.1
Consciousness of guilt may also produce the illusion of possession by means of autosuggestion. The Catholic priest, B. Heyne, relates the following “from the reports of the missionary fathers”:
A Chinese catechumen wished to take part in a heathen marriage where sacrificial meat is customarily eaten. She had been expressly warned against it a short time before. She transgressed the interdiction and after the meal believed herself to be possessed.2
With this should be compared the case of Achille reported below by Janet.
Finally we shall emphasize as vital, because it furnishes a further explanation of the erreat frequencv of possession under the influence of belief in the devil, the fact that possession has often been cultivated by the doctor from the most insignificant beginnings.
The cause of this strange fact is that all possible ailments were laid to the account of the demon. “The number of demoniaco-magnetic affections,” says Kerner again, “is really very great.”1 For years possession might only be able to manifest itself by pains, cramp, etc. In this respect Swabian romanticism descended very nearly to the level of the primitive races who believe that all maladies and misfortunes are caused by demons. It was a revival of German mediæval Christianity, which in some circumstances considered animals and houses too as possessed and subjected them to exorcism.2
According to Kerner the doctor’s task in suspected cases was to bring the demon to light, that is, where as yet no extreme psychic disturbance existed, to produce it. Kerner says expressly that before the cure the demon must be made to speak, which the exorcist commanded him to do “in steadfast faith and in the name of Jesus.”3
He says very naïvely:
Only novices or wicked persons can be so mistaken as to think that magico-magnetic treatment begins by putting into the minds of these patients the idea of a malign second personality.4
In order fully to elucidate this doctrine we must be allowed to amplify with a sample case of the “hidden demon” type such as may also be found in Kerner’s works. A patient writes of himself:
Already in my first youth I had had heartburn from the stomach with which there came to me against my will all sorts of strange and tormenting ideas causing inward struggles and melancholy. But these sufferings were often of short duration, for I was able to put an end to them by fervent prayer. They were often completely interrupted for several years at a time until I was in my thirtieth year, but this condition then set in again with increased violence and frequency.
I had recourse to all sorts of medical treatment, but in vain, for the malady rose year by year and finally reached the head. I was tortured with twitchings, prickings, and dizziness in the head which often made it seem as if I were being struck on the back of the neck with the fist and my body dragged upwards as if someone wished to throw me to the ground with murderous violence. It often seems to me that I have on my head a weight of several quintals which must break down my legs. This attack comes on almost every day and I feel that under this heavy burden my feet leave prints on the ground. From day to day these terrible pains increase, together with diabolic thoughts of blasphemies against God which are a most anguishing inner torment. This agitation in my body and these painful eructations are often most violent during prayer and I then have horrible feelings of suffocation.
For a long time past I have used quantities of every conceivable medicine to cure these pains, but always without result.
PHILIPP NEGELE,
Forester.
BUBENORBIS,
12th Jan., 1836.
Kerner adds:
The forester Negele is a very intelligent and truthful man. There is no doubt that his malady is of a demoniaco-magnetic character, although no demon speaks by his mouth. A magico-m
agnetic treatment would probably induce the demon to speak. It will be very difficult for him to be cured by any other treatment.1
Jeanne des Anges also became possessed in good earnest thanks to exorcism.2
In particular cases the compulsive idea is developed into a complete obsessive personality, a “demon” because by suggestion practised upon this latter a cure succeeds more easily. Thus in his case Janet from the first spoke directly to the demon; it is true that he did not subsequently proceed in the manner of the old exorcists.3
In the following case the practice of exorcism resulted in a strange voice suddenly beginning to speak in a man who for years past had suffered from fairly severe compulsive phenomena without nevertheless reaching a complete inner division:
A man of seventy-one years, an old magnetic demoniac, wished also … to ask for help. In his thirty-sixth year this man had had, according to his own account, a swelling in the region of the stomach accompanied by sharp pains. In spite of this he was able to eat all kinds of food, and even found himself obliged, contrary to his former habits, to eat heavily. As his pains continued to make themselves felt day and night, without leaving him any rest although the swelling of the stomach had subsided, he used for two years a great many medicines, but without result. He nevertheless noticed that during prayer there was always something which seemed to rise up from his belly. Finally it often threw him to the ground with great violence even while he was praying. These attacks often ceased for six months, then came on again with increased strength.… The strangest result was that he found himself constrained to insult and abuse his wife and children; in particular, and without being able to give any reason, he could no longer endure these latter.
The death of his wife, whom he dearly loved, brought no change in his state, nor did a second marriage which he contracted in spite of his attacks. He was advised, although a Lutheran, to go to the Catholic priests. In the presence of those who were able to work on him his head turned convulsively backward and he uttered involuntary roarings, but without articulate words; with the others his malady gave no sign, but as soon as he left them it raged anew with added violence.…