4 Cf. J. M. Judt, Die Juden als Rasse, Cologne, 1903.
1 Reproduced above, p. 101.
2 Julius Jolly, Grundriss der indo-arischen Theologie und Altertumskunde, vol. iv, no. 10, Strasburg, 1901, p. 69.
1 Ibid., p. 122.
1 Hymns of the Atharva-Veda together with extracts from the Ritual Books and the Commentaries, translated by Maurice Bloomfield, Oxford, 1897 (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. xlii), p. 32.
2 Ibid., p. 519.
3 The Lalita-Vistara or Memoirs of the Early Life of S’a’kya Sinha. Translated from the original Sanskrit by Ra’jendra’la la Mitra, Calcutta, 1881, pp. 110 sq. (chap. vi). Unfortunately, a note concerning the idea of possession which the translator had announced (as appears from the asterisk in the text) has been for otten in the supplement. It might have thrown light on the idea of possession in the Hindu legend of Buddha.
1 Pantschatantra-Caritam, Fünf Bücher indischer Fabeln, Märchen und Erzählungen, Aus dem Sanskrit übersetzt mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen von Theodor Benfey, part i, Leipzig, 1859, pp. 519–521.
2 A. Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, vol. ii, Leipzig, 1860, p. 557.
1 The medical works on the epidemics of the Middle Ages (e.g., Hecker, Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters, Berlin, 1865) also contain nothing, and the same is true of the social histories of that period.
2 J. von Görres, Mystik, Regensburg, 1842, vol. iv, part i.
3 H. Günter, Die Christliche Legende des Abendlandes (Religions-wissenschaftliche Bibliothek, vol. ii), p. 112.
1 Acta Sanctorum, Augusti, vol. vi, p. 439 (August 28).
1 Actn Sanctorum, Augusti, vol. iv, pp. 106 sq. (August 20).
2 Ibid., pp. 248 sq.
3 Ibid., p. 239.
4 Ibid., p. 281.
1 Ernaldus, Vita Bernardi Abbatis Claravallensis, cap. iii, §§ 13–15 in Migne, Patrologiœ Cursus completus, vol. clxxxv, pp. 276 sq. Also Acta Sanctorum, Augusti, vol. iv, p. 282.
1 Ernaldus, ibid., cap. iv, §. 21 sq.; Migne, ibid., pp. 279 sq.; Acta Sanctorum, ibid., pp. 283 sq.
2 First Life, part i, chap. xxv (The Lives of St. Francis of Assisi, by Thomas of Celano, trans. by A. G. Ferrers Howell, London, 1908, p. 66).
1 Ibid., pp. 68–69.
2 The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi, trans. by T. W. Amold, London, 1899, pp. 234–35.
1 Görres, Die christliche Mystik, Regensburg, 1842, vol. iv, part i, p. 332, from the Acta Sunctorum, June 6, c. viii, p. 834.
1 Miracula S. Henrici Imperatoris (suppl. to the Life), Acta Sanctorum, July 3, vol. iii, p. 767.
2 Ibid., pp. 768 sq.
3 Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis, vol. ii, p. 399.
1 Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis, vol. i, p. 144.
2 Erich Bischoff, Die Kabbalah, Einführung in die jüdische Mystik und Geheimwissenschaft, Leipzig, 1903, pp. 87 sq.
3 The main representative of the ethical-ascetic tendency of the Kabbala (1534–72).
4 Loc. cit., pp. 87 sq.
5 E. A. Wallis Budge, Thomas of Marga, vol. ii, quoted by R. Campbell Thompson: The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London, 1903, vol. i, p. 41 (Luzac’s Semitic Text and Translation Series, vol. xiv).
1 Leo Africanus, Delle Navigazioni, Raccolte de Ramuzio, vol. i, Venice, 1613, quoted by B. Heyne, Ueber Besessenheitswahn, p. 30.
2 Kirchoff, Beziehungen des Dämonen- und Hexenwesens zur deutschen Irrenpflege, “Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie,” vol. xliv, pp. 329 sq.
3 Grisar, Luther, Freiburg, 1912, vol. ii, pp. 235 sq.
4 Luthers Tischreden. Erlanger edition of the works of Luther vol. lix, p. 289 and vol. lx, pp. 1–60, 75–80, 80–176, 285.
1 Grisar, Luther, vol. iii, pp. 629 sq.
2 L. F. Calmeil, De la folie considérée sous le point de vue pathologique, philosophique et judiciaire, 2. vols., Paris, 1845.
3 K. W. Ideler, Versuch einer Theorie der religiösen Wahnsinns, Halle, 1848, vol. i, chap. viii.
4 R. Leubuscher, Der Wahnsinn in den vier letzten Jahrhunderten, Halle, 1848, pp. 80 sq.
5 P. Richer, Études cliniques sur la grande hystérie, Paris, 1885, Supplément.
1 Esquirol, Pathologie générale et spéciale et thérapeutique des maladies de l’esprit.
2 R. Leubuscher, loc. cit., pp. 80 sq.
3 A. Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, vol. ii, Leipzig, 1860, p. 565.
1 Horst, Zauberbibliothek, i, pp. 212 sq.; (A. Stoll, Suggestion, etc., 2nd edit., p. 425).
2 Ibid., iii, p. 165, v, p. 203, etc.
3 For further details taken from the original documents, cf. Richer, loc. cit., pp. 851–865.
1 Cf. above, pp. 14, 51, etc. For a more complete study of the futile nature of magic and the iniquitous witchcraft-trials, cf. the Acta Magica, published by Johann Reichen, Halle, 1704. Finally, we should add the already oft-quoted autobiography of the heroine and originator of this epidemic: Sœur Jeanne des Anges, Supérieure des Ursulines de Loudun, Paris, 1887.
1 Esquirol, Des maladies mentales considérées sous le rapport médical, hygiénique et médico-légal, Paris, 1838.
1 Esquirol, ibid.; cf. also Calmeil, loc. cit.
2 Luys, Études de physiologie et de pathologie cérébrales, Paris, 1874, p. 75. Taken from Briquet, Traité clinique et thérapeutique de l’hystérie, Paris, 1859, p. 322.
3 J. S. Semler, Commentatio de dœmoniacis quorum in Novo Testamento fit mentio, 4th edit., Halæ, 1779. By the same author: Umständliche Untersuchung der dämonischen Leute oder sogenannte Besessenen nebst Beantwortung einiger Angriffe, Halle, 1762.
4 J. S. Semler, Versuch einiger moralischer Betrachtungen über die vielen Wunderkuren und Mirakel in den älteren Zeiten zur Beförderung des immer besseren Gebrauchs der Kirchenhistorie, Halle, 1762, p. 25.
1 Schleiermacher, Das Leben Jesu, complete works, vol. vi., Berlin, 1864, pp. 342 sq. Also in: Der Christliche Glaube nach den Grundsätzen der evangelischen Kirche im Zusammenhang dargestellt, §§ 44 and 55, ibid., vol. iii, Berlin, 1835, pp. 209–222.
2 Statement by Strauss in: Das Leben Jesu, 3rd edit., vol. ii, Tübingen, 1839, pp. 12 sq.
1 Ibid., pp. 20 sq.
2 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 26 sq.
3 Ibid., p. 31.
1 Cf. above, p. 14, 20 sq.
2 J. von Görres, Die christliche Mystik, vol. iv, Regensburg, 1842, p. 287 sq.
3 Cf. above. p. 15.
4 According to Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, vol. ii, Leipzig, 1860, D. 561.
5 A. Monnin, Vie du Curé d’Ars J. B. M. Vianney, Paris, vol. ii, chap. iii.
6 According to A. Bastian, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 370.
7 Quoted by A. Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asiens, vol. iii, p. 295.
1 Ibid., p. 301, from the account of Dr. Reid Clanny.
2 Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, Murray’s Family Library, 1830.
3 Blätter aus Prevorst, ed. by Justinus Kerner, coll. 20, Stuttgart, 1838, pp. 173 sq.
1 Quoted by A. Bastian, Die deutsche Expedition an der Loanga Küste, vol. ii, Jena, 1875, p. 204 note.
2 Ed. Meyer, Ursprung und Geschichte der iiormonen, Halle, 1912.
1 W. Scott, loc. cit., pp. 421 sq.
2 Ibid., pp. 422 sq.
3 A. Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, vol. ii, pp. 558 sq.
1 Naturally all conclusions refer to the pre-war period.
2 Th. Taczak, Dämonische Besessenheit, Dissertation, Münster, 1903, pp. 10 sq.
3 Joh. Smit, Disertatio exegetico-apologetics, Romæ, 1913 (in Scripta Pontificii Instituti Biblici).
1 J. E. Pruner, Lehrbuch der Pastoraltheologie, Paderborn, 1900, vol. i, p. 267.
2 Aug. Stöhr, Handbuch der Pastoralmedizin, 4th edit., revised and dited by Ludwig Kannamüller, Freiburg, 1900, p. 425.
3 The two cases observed by Stöhr himself are found ibid., pp. 326 sq.
4 Ibid., pp. 426 sq.
1 Cornelius Krieg, Wissenschaft der Seelenleitung. Eine P
astoraltheologie in 4 Büchern, vol. i, Freiburg, 1904, p. 180.
1 Franz Schubert, Grundzüge der Pastoraltheologie, Gratz, 1913, p. 468.
2 Georg Hafner, Die Dämonischen des neuen Testaments, Frankfurt a.M., 1894, Hans Laehr, Die Dämonischen des neuen Testaments (a reply to Pastor Hafner), Leipzig, 1894.
3 A. Poulain, La Plénitude des Grâces.
4 Pp. 107 sq., 109 sq.
1 Paul Schilder, Selbstbewusstsein und Persönlichkeitsbewusstsein. Monographien aus dem Gesamtgebiete der Neurologic und Psychiatrie, ed. by A. Alzheimer and M. Lewandowsky, No. 9, Berlin, 1914, pp. 247 sq.
2 Ibid., p. 249.
1 Ugo Cerletti, Sulle recenti concezioni dell’ isteria e della suggestione a proposito di una endemia di posessione demoniaca, in “Annali de l’Instituto psichiatrico della Università di Roma,” vol. iii, no. 1, 1904. Detailed summary in “Journal de psychologie normale et pathologique,” vol. ii, 1905.
2 V. I. Mansikka, in the article “Demons and Spirits” of the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. iv, p. 626.
1 Quoted by B. Heyne, Ueber Besessenheitswahn, Paderborn, 1904, p. 136.
1 Jacob Fromer, Ghetto-Dämmerung. Eine Lebensgeschichte, 3rd edit., Leipzig, 1812, pp. 64 sq.
1 William James, The Principles of Psychology, London, 1891, vol. i, pp. 397 sq. The source is E. W. Steffens’ book: The Watseka Wonder, Chicago, 1897. Steffens had followed the whole case as a doctor. More extensive extracts from the original will be found in Myers’ work: The Human Personality and its Surviral of Bodily Death, London, 1907, vol. ii, pp. 360–68. Steffens’ account had been published in the Religio-philosophical Journal (1878). Hodgson’s account also appeared in that journal (December 20th, 1890).
1 Quarterly Statement, London, 1893, pp. 214 sq.
1 Curtiss, Ursemitische Religion im Volksleben des heutigen Orients, Leipzig, 1903, pp. 172 sq.
1 Chronicles of the London Missionary Society, March, 1911.
1 Ad. Bastian, Ueber pychische Beobachtungen bei Naturvölkern. Schriften der Gesellschaft für Experimental-Psychologie zu Berlin, ii, Leipzig, 1890, pp. 20 sq.
1 Ibid., pp. 21 sq.
1 Ad. Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asiens, vol. iii, pp. 300 sq.
2 Mason, Burmah, p. 107, quoted by A. Lang, The Making of Religion, 2nd edit., London, 1900, p. 130.
1 Herz-Jesu Bote, hg. vom Steyler Missionshaus, July, 1801, quoted by Stützle, Das griechische Orakelwesen, part ii, Progr. des Gymn. zu Ellwangen, 1890–91, p. 66.
2 John L. Nevius, Demon Possession and Allied Themes, 2nd edit., London, 1896.
3 Proc. S.P.R., xiii, 1897–98, pp. 602 sq.
4 Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, 2nd edit., London, 1900, chap.vii: Demoniacal Possession.
1 Gaume, L’eau bénite au XIXme siècle, 3rd edit., Paris, 1866.
1 Mrs. Howard Taylor, One of China’s Christians, London, 1903, pp. 14–16.
1 Ibid., pp. 94–97.
2 The Fox family consists of three divisions, at the head of which stand three brothers: Fox I, Fox II and Fox III.
3 V. d. Goltz, Zauberei- und Hexenkünste in China (Mitteilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, vol. vii (1893–97), p. 22.
1 Encyclopœdia of Religion and Ethics, vol. iv, p. 608.
2 Ibid., p. 610.
3 Ibid., p. 612.
4 E. Bälz, Ueber Besessenheit (Verhandl. d. Ges. deuts. Naturforscher und Aerzte, Conf., 78 [1906]), Leipzig, 1907.
5 Ibid., p. 120.
6 Ibid., p. 129.
1 F. Paulhan, Les caractdres, 2nd edit., Paris, 1902,. pp. 23–31.
2 Bälz, loc. cit., p. 129.
3 Ibid.
4 Marie, Bulletin de l’Institut général psychologique, vol. vi (1906), p. 73.
1 Same story in Wiener klinische Wochenschrift, 1907, pp. 982 sq.
2 This expression does not seem to me happy. The phenomenon is not regular nor can we designate by the name of delusions the transition of these compulsions from semi- into complete somnambulism. This is contrary to the whole of current terminology and would also be inappropriate. The woman’s belief in the possibility of possession and in her own affection by a demoniacal being is by no means a delusion. She only shares the ideas of her environment.
3 Bälz in Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte, 78. Versammlung (1907), pp. 129 sq.
4 A. Lloyd, Encyclopœdia of Religion and Ethics, vol. iv, p. 612.
1 J. v. Görres, Die christliche Mystik, Regensburg, 1842, vol. iv, part i, pp. 86 sq. from Delrio, Disquisitiones magicœ, i, vi, c. ii, p. 980.
1 E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Egyptians of To-day, London, 1836. Dr. B. Macdonald, Aspects of Islam, New York, 1911, p. 332.
2 Ibid., pp. 330 sq.
1 P. Kahle, Zar Beschwörungen in Aegypten, in the review Der. Islam, vol. ii, 1912, pp. 9 sq.
2 Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka, The Hague, 1889, vol. ii, p. 125, note
1 Ibid., pp. 124–128.
1 Under the name of Maghrib countries the historians of Arabia include the western parts of the Mohammedan world, that is to say Northern Africa (with the exception of Egypt) and Spain. Maghrib means west in Arabia.
2 Snouck Hurgronje, iiekka, vol. ii, p. 125.
1 B. Klunzinger, Bilder aus Oberägypten, der Wüste und dem roten Meere, Stuttgart, 1877, pp. 388 sq. An excellent work of great literary charm giving a clear idea of these countries and their natural features.
1 W. C. Plowden, Travels in Abessinia and the Galla Country, with an account of a mission to Ress Ali in 1848, London, 1868, p. 259. Cf. also pp. 264 sq.
2 J. Borelli, Ethiopie méridionale, Paris, 1890, p. 133.
CHAPTER VII
ARTIFICIAL AND VOLUNTARY POSSESSION AMONGST PRIMITIVE PEOPLES. SO-CALLED SHAMANISM
A general survey of the whole body of known cases of possession shows that, in addition to the two principal forms, somnambulistic and lucid, it falls into other important divisions, since, while many cases are characterized by extraordinary excitement and even fury, others are comparatively quiet. The first have made by far the more stir, and we too have given them our principal attention. But they are not the only ones; there are also more tranquil states, several of which we have learnt to know, and which are also rightly styled “possession,” inasmuch as to the casual and unscientific observer they seem to consist in the domination of the individual by a strange, intruding soul. This soul is either that of a demon, of a dead (or quite exceptionally a living) man, or in some cases of a beast.
From the standpoint of the history of religion the somewhat calmer cases of possession are of much greater importance than the violent ones. That is to say, they are often not simply endured, however and wherever they may chance to occur, but are or were systematically provoked over wide stretches of the habitable globe. Such deliberately produced states of possession are now designated as Shamanism—we shall see with what degree of justification.
To primitive people the possessed stand as intermediaries between the world of men and the spirit-world; the spirits speak through their mouths. It is therefore no wonder that as soon as men realized that states of this kind could be voluntarily induced, free use was made of the fact.
The accounts of ethnologists show beyond a doubt that the psyche of primitive peoples is much less firmly seated than that of civilized ones. In my Einführung in die Religions-psychologie,1 I have already mentioned in this connection a narrative by Thurnwald.2 I shall again reproduce it here because of its importance in the present connection:
As an example (of the ease with which autosuggestion can change the personal consciousness amongst primitive people) I might relate how one young man mocks another by saying “I am so-and-so,” not “I am like so-and-so.” An incident which occurred showed me how far such an identification may go. At Buin my landlord Ungi lay stretched out one day looking deeply agitated on a great wooden cask in the chiefs’ room which I had rented. When I asked what was th
e matter, he told me that he was ill. Questioning him further I learnt that often, without more precise localization, he was “ill all over.” I gave, as usual when I could not gather anything specific, aloe pills. On the following day he still lay there. Then my servants told me that Ungi was ill because his wife was ill. By further questioning I learnt that she had a bad wound; so I now gave Ungi bandages and sent the man home to his wife with them. After a few days he was well, for his wife had recovered. This is a case of identification with the sufferings of another person, of physiological sympathy.
This narrative shows how unstable is primitive personality, how easily it succumbs to autosuggestion, which never exercises the same kind of influence on civilized man.
The following episode may also serve as an example of primitive autosuggestibility. Bastian relates of Siam:
When the growers sieve the rice (Kadong fat) they like to amuse themselves by letting a young person who does not yet understand the cleansing of the rice through the hand-sieve (Kadong) take part. Before they give the hand-sieve over to the boy or girl they secretly call the female demon (Phi) of the sieve to enter into it, and she then works upon it so powerfully that the holder of the sieve twists his body into the most strange and wonderful positions, always swaying in measure with the others the while, which causes the greatest amusement and merriment. Those who have often taken part in the rice-sieving cannot be infected by the demon, for they keep their movements too much under voluntary control for this influence to act upon them.3
It must, moreover, be admitted that civilized people show a high degree of autosuggestibility in certain circumstances. By way of example we may quote the peculiar psychic intoxication to which in certain places (e.g., Munich and Cologne) a large part of the population falls victim on a given day of the year (Carnival).
Abnormal suggestibility characterizes the following cases cited by Bastian as examples of the imitative instinct:
In Tunis a maidservant was present when someone clapped. Actuated by the spirit of imitation, she threw away the carafe she was carrying in order to do the same. When she saw dancers she joined in with them.1
In an hysterical affection (in Siam) which is also known in Burmah and is there called yaun, the sufferers involuntarily imitate all the movements which they see made by other people. If anyone raises an arm or scratches himself they do the same. An old woman carrying a jar of oil passed behind an ox; as the latter began to urinate the old woman took the jar and poured the oil out in a similar stream.2
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