2 Philippson, Article on the geology of Delphi in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realenzyklopädie, see also Oppé’s Mitteilungen aus einem Privatbrief Philippsons, loc. cit., pp. 233 sq.
3 I made at Locarno experiments in chewing fresh laurel-leaves, but without results of any interest.
1 C. W. Goettling, loc. cit., p. 60.
2 Pausaniœ Descriptio Graeciœ, ii, 26, 7.
3 Ibid., x, 37, 6.
4 Æschines, Against Ctesiphon, 112.
5 Bergk, loc. cit., p. 335.
6 Herodotus, Historiœ, i, 47.
7 Heliodorus, Æthiopica, ii, 35.
1 Plutarch’s Morals, trans, by Several Hands, pub. W. Taylor, London, 1718, vol. iv, Why the Oracles cease to give Answers, p. 59.
2 Cf. Stadelmann, Tod durch Vorstellung (Suggestion) in “Zeitschrift für Hypnotismus,” vol. iii, 1894–95, pp. 81 sq.
3 Heliodorus, Æthiopica, i, 35.
1 C. W. Goettling, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 59. Cf. p. 62.
2 Ibid., p. 62.
3 Epigrammatum Anthologia palatina, vol. iii (2nd edit.), ed. Cougny, Paris, 1890, pp. 464–583. A new collection will appear in the Poetarum griecorum fragmenta of Wilamowitz.
1 U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, Die griechische Literatur, 9th edit., Berlin, 1907, p. 42.
2 Bergk, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 333. Cf. Stengel, loc. cit., p. 67.
3 E. Curtius, Griechische Geschichte, 6th edit., Berlin, 1887, vol. i, p. 549.
1 Plato, Phœdrus (trans. Everyman Series, “Five Dialogues of Plato,” D. 228).
2 Cicero, De divinatione, i, 19.
3 Cf. Lucan, Pharsalia, v, pp. 111 sq. Some details concerning the decadence and rehabilitation of the oracle of Delphi will be found in L. Friedlander, Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms, 8th edit., vol. iv, Leipzig, 1910, pp. 176 sq.
4 Cicero, loc. cit., i, 19, p. 38.
5 Ibid., i, 19, pp. 37 sq.
6 Ibid., ii, 57, p. 117.
1 Ante-Nicene Library, Writings of Origen, Against Celsus, vol. ii, bk. vii, chap. iii.
2 Cf. P. Stengel, loc. cit., p. 67.
3 Baedeker, Greece, 4th edit., London, 1909, p. 149.
4 Friedländer, loc. cit., p. 177.
1 Arnobius, Adv. Gentes, i, 1; Eusebius, Prcep. Evang., v, 1; Prudentius, Apotheosis, pp. 435 sq.
2 Tertullian, De Anima, c. 46.
3 Lactantius, Inst. div., ii, 16.
4 Minucius Felix, Octavius, cap. 27, C.S.P.C.K., Translations of Christian Literature, series ii.
5 Theophilus, Ad Autolyc., ii, 8, quoted by Harnack, loc. cit., p. 151.
6 Minucius Felix, loc. cit., cap. 26.
1 Minucius Felix, loc. cit., cap. 27.
2 Tatian, Oratio ad Grœcos, 18.
3 Theophilus, Ad Autolyc., ii, 9.
1 Origen, Contra Celsum, bk. vii, chaps. iii-iv (Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Writings of Origen, trans. Crombie, vol. ii.).
2 Justin Martyr, Apologia, cap. xviii (Ante-Nicene Christian Library, The Writings of Justin Martyr and Athenagoras, trans. M. Dods, London, 1857.
3 St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, xix, 23, 2 sq. (Works of Aurelius Augustine, ed. Dods, Edinburgh, 1858, p. 334).
4 Ibid., xix, 23 (p. 335).
1 Ibid., xix, 23 (p. 335).
2 Körting, Petrarcas Leben und Werke, Leipzig, 1878, p. 613, quoted by Friedländer, loc. cit.
3 F. X. Knabenhauer, Orakel und Prophetie, Passau, 1881.
4 Stützle, loc. cit. (cf. p. 311, note 2).
5 Lucan, Pharsalia, v, 85–213.
6 Cf. the eminent commentary Adnotationes super Lucanum, ed. Joannes Endt, Lipsiæ (Teubner), 1909, pp. 162 sq.
1 For guidance see J. Geffcken, Aus der Werdezeit des Christentums (Natur und Geisteswelt, vol. liv), Leipzig, 1904, ii, 2. E. Maas, De Sibyllarum indicïbus, Dissertation, Greifenwald, 1879. C. Alexandre, Excursus ad Sibyllina, Paris, 1857.
2 Bergk, loc. cit., i, pp. 342 sq.
3 Virgil, Æneid, vi.
1 The Sibylline Oracles, trans. M. S. Terry, New York, 1890, book i, ll.1–6, cf. iii, 808–828.
2 Ibid., bk. ii, ll. 1–5.
3 Ibid., bk. iii, ll. 190–193.
4 Ibid., bk. iii, ll. 346–50.
5 Ibid., bk. iii, ll. 580–584.
6 Ibid., bk. ix (xi), ll. 396–399.
1 Ibid., bk. iii, ll. 1–10.
2 Ibid., bk. x, ll. 362–370.
3 Cf. my Einführung in die Religionspsychologie, Berlin, 1917, ch. v.
1 Sibylline Oracles (Terry), viii, ll. 448 sq.
2 Cicero, De divinatione, i, 18.
1 E. Rohde, Psyche, 2nd edit., vol. ii, Tübingen, 1898, pp. 9 sq.
2 Livy, xxxix, 8 sq.
1 Arthur S. Way, Euripides in English Verse, vol. iii, p. 400, ll. 677–689.
2 Ibid., vol. iii, p. 381, ll. 313–318.
3 Rohde, loc. cit., p. 4. For the words , etc., see p. 11, note 1, and pp. 18 sq. notes, of this work.
1 Rohde, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 11 sq. Cf. also p. 14, in the notes on original documents.
2 S. Way, loc. cit., p. 374, ll. 136–158.
1 Cf. Rohde, loc. cit., p. 14, note 4.
2 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 14 sq.
3 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 15, note 1.
1 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 14, note 3.
2 Euripides, loc. cit., p. 380, ll. 300–301.
3 Quoted by Rohde, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 20, note 1.
4 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 16.
5 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 16.
6 Plato, Ion, 534 A.
7 Euripides, loc. cit., p. 90.
1 Ibid., p. 401, ll. 705–710.
2 Lucian, De Saltat, 79, quoted by Farnell, loc. cit., vol. v, p. 297.
3 G. Norwood, The Riddle of the Bacchce, the Last Stage of Euripides’ Religious Views, Manchester, 1908.
1 E. Rohde, Psyche, 2nd edit., Tübingen, 1898, vol. ii, p. 20, note 1.
2 Plato, The Meno, 99c.
3 Philo, De special. legibus, iv, 343 M., ed. Cohn and Wendland, vol. v, p. 219.
4 Philo, loc. cit., p. 222 M., ed. Cohn and Wendland, vol. v, p. 16.
1 Plato, Phœdo, 69 c.
2 Jamblichus, De Mysteriis, Sect. iii, ch. v, pp. 123–24. English trans. by Th. Taylor, London, 1895.
3 Ibid., iii, 8, pp. 128–29.
1 Ibid., iii, 4, p. 121.
2 Rohde, loc. cit., pp. 47 sq.
3 Arrian in Eustathius, ad Dionysium Periegetem, 809, quoted by Rohde, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 48. Cf. the Dionysius Periegetes of G. Bernhardy, Leipzig, 1828.
4 G. Graillot, Le Culte de Cybèle, Paris, 1912.
5 Rohde, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 60; G. F. Schoemann, Griechische Altertümer, 4th edit. rev. Lipsius, Berlin, 1902, vol. ii, p. 330.
1 On the priestess of Apollo at Argos, cf. Pausanius, ii, 24, 1, quoted by Rohde, loc. cit., p. 58, note 1. On the prophetess of Achaia cf. Pliny, Natural History, xxviii, 147, quoted by J. G. Frazer, The Magic Art, London, 1911, vol. i, p. 383. Frazer also gives other cases from various civilizations of prophetic possession induced by drinking blood.
2 Pausanius, loc. cit., x, 33, 11; quoted by Rohde, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 59, note 2.
3 Rohde, loc. cit., p. 331.
4 Ibid., p. 328.
5 E. von Lasaulx, Das pelasgische Orakel des Zeus zu Dodona, Würzburg, 1840, p. 14.
6 Aristides, Opera, ii, 13, quoted by Lasaulx, loc. cit., p. 14.
1 Jamblichus, loc. cit., iii, ch. 11, p. 142.
2 L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, vol. v, Oxford, 1909, p. 150.
1 Plato, Ion, trans. Shelley (Everyman edit., Five Dialogues of Plato, pp. 6–7).
2 Julian the Apostate, Orat., iv, Loeb Library. This quotation as well as the following are taken from Georg Man, Die Religions-philosophie Kaiser Julians, Leipzig, 1907, p. 55.
1 Ibid., 136 b.
2 Ibid., Orat., iv, 149 c.
3 R. Reitzenstein, Ein Stück hellenistischer Kleinliteratur (Ges. der Wissensch.), Göttingen, 1904, pp. 314 sq.
4 H. Fröhlic
h, Tamulische Volksreligion, Leipzig, 1915.
1 E. Schmidt, Ceylon, Berlin, p. 296, from R. Caldwell, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, London, 1856, p. 522. Another work by Caldwell, On Demonolatry, published in the “Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay,” vol. i, has remained inaccessible to me, but a quotation, perfectly compatible with the above, is given by J. G. Frazer, The Magic Art, London, 1911, vol. i, p. 382. Numerous photographs of devil-dancers and their appurtenances in W. L. Hildburgh, Notes on Sinhalese Magic in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxviii, 1908.
1 Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asiens, vol. iii, Jena, 1867, pp. 274 sq. Short description of choreographic possession, amongst the Molukka, vol. i, pp. 2 sq. Further details on possession, ibid., pp. 11 sq. Case of a Burman Pythoness diagnosing maladies, vol. ii, p. 110.
2 A. Bastian, Ideale Welten, vol. i, Reisen auf der Vorder-Indischen Halbinsel im Jahre 1890, Berlin, 1892, p. 81.
3 Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asiens, i, p. 103.
1 Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 274 sq.
2 Ibid., p. 280.
3 Ibid., p. 280.
4 Ibid., p. 263.
5 Ibid., p. 263.
6 Cf. supra, p. 96.
7 Ibid., p. 300.
1 Bastian adds the following note: The Khon Song puts on the god's clothing, as the Californian Indians dressed as Tobet when they danced for Tshiniotshinish.
2 When no subitable mediator can be found, the divine force is conjured to descend into the sanctuary which only the priests (Karen) dare approach.
3 Ibid., pp. 282 sq.
4 Ibid., pp. 294 sq.
5 Ibid., pp. 286 sq.
1 Ibid., p. 286.
2 Ibid., p. 295.
3 A. Bastian, Zur Kenntnis Hawaii’s, Berlin, 1883, pp. 58 sq., note.
1 De Groot, The Religious Systems of China, its Ancient Forms, etc., 6 vols., Leyden, 1892–1910.
2 De Groot designates them under the name of “animism.” This word should be taken in the sense of belief in spirits, not, as is usual in Germany, in the sense of the attribution of a soul to everything.
3 Ibid., vol. vi, p. 1190.
1 Ibid., pp. 1201 sq.
2 Ibid., p. 1209.
1 J. Witle, Das Buch des Marco Polo als Quelle für die Religionsgeschichte, Berlin, 1916. Quotation from Marco Polo is from Yule’s trans., London, 1871, vol. ii, pp. 53 sq.
2 De Groot, loc. cit., p. 1211.
3 Ibid., p. 1217.
1 Ibid., pp. 1190 sq.
1 Such a medium often becomes the centre of a kind of club.
2 De Groot, loc. cit., pp. 1268–75.
1 Von der Goltz, Zauberei und Hexenkünste in China (“Ges. für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens,” vol. vi, 1893–97, p. 21).
1 See Appendix.
2 Ibid., pp. 17–19.
1 Vide supra, pp. 117 sq.
2 The above is an exact description of one scene of this sort witnessed by the writer in the women’s apartments of a house in North China.
1 Mrs. Howard Taylor, Pastor Hsi, pp. 160–162.
2 A. Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asien, vol. iii, p. 287, note.
3 Von der Goltz, loc. cit., p. 24. Extract from an article published in a Chinese newspaper at Pekin.
1 A. Messer, Psychologie, Stuttgart, 1914, p. 367.
1 William James never professed the spiritualist faith. He did not go beyond recognizing the parapsychic facts and rather pronounced in favour of a “cosmic consciousness” as the source of supernormal knowledge. Cf. my edition of the works of W. James, Études et réflexions d’un psychiste, Paris, 1925 (R. Sudre).
2 Amongst the lower and uneducated classes, but spiritualism has not penetrated amongst the aristocracy of intellect and no eminent scientist has made overt profession of it (R. Sudre).
1 The works of Hans Freimark contain a good critical survey of the spiritualist world.
2 C. G. Jung, Zur Psychologie und Pathologie sogenannter okkulter Phänomene, Leipzig, 1902, p. 24.
1 Th. Flournoy, Des Indes à la planète Mars, Paris-Geneva, 1900, p. 117.
1 Jung, loc. cit., p. 63.
1 Cf. pp. 70 sq.
2 H. Freimark, Okkultismus und Sexualität, Leipzig (no date), p. 376.
1 Cf. pp. 50 sq.
2 Cf. pp. 278 sq.
3 M. Sage, Mme. Piper et la Société anglo-américaine pour les recherches psychiques, Paris, 1922.
1 Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. vi, p. 545.
1 In my works Grundbegriffe der Parapsychologie, Pfüllingen, 1921, and Der Okkultismus im modernen Weltbild, Dresden, 1921, I have tried to explain these phenomena, without , recourse to spiritualist doctrine. Cf. also René Sudre, Introduction à la Métapsychique humaine, Paris, 1926.
2 The starting-point of this literature is the complete works of Allan Kardec, particularly the Livre des médiums, which has in a certain sense become classic.
3 W. James, Psychology, London, 1892, p. 212.
1 Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, 2nd edit., London, 1900, ch. vii, p. 129.
2 Those interested in such questions may consult the works of Pierre Janet, Binet, and Morton Prince.
CONCLUSION
THE foregoing documents have placed beyond doubt the wide distribution of the phenomena of possession over the habitable globe. However much they may differ in detail, at bottom they are all identical. Their importance from the point of view of the history of religion is profound but rigidly circumscribed: they are mainly responsible for inspiring and maintaining belief in the existence of demons and the survival of the souls of the dead, as well as a certain intercourse between these latter and the living world. They are not alone in this—in primitive states of civilization dreams must be added—but they are the most important and active factor.
The dominant conception of the present time is that no psychic life supervenes except in the presence of a material vehicle and that no spirit, either pure or possessed only of an etheric body, exists in this world. Now this idea, which has become one of the most firmly established constituents of our present-day outlook on life, is completely new as measured by the standard of history. It is another of the fruits of the “Age of Enlightenment,” the importance of which has been so profoundly underestimated and which contains the roots of nearly every fundamental conception of our scientific thought. It may be said without exaggeration that the whole of the preceding centuries theoretically regarded the air as filled with demons, peopled with spirits of all sorts. The extent to which possession contributed to produce that belief is abundantly demonstrated by the fact that at the present time belief in a spirit-world resuscitates wherever kindred states are manifested; observers without a thorough preliminary knowledge of psychology are absolutely convinced that they are in the presence of a “spirit.” Once produced, this belief must in turn have reacted very strongly on possession and produced it with great frequency.
It is not easy to exaggerate the importance of this belief in spirits.
Side by side with its function of exciting and maintaining amongst mankind a belief in the existence of spirits and demons, possession has yet another significance, religious in character and intimately bound up with the first. Together with consciousness of the presence of spirits it produces an impression of horror, of something sinister, and in general all the sentiments of tremendum of which Rudolf Otto has given an excellent analysis, demonstrating also their importance in primitive religion.1
By the artificial provocation of possession primitive man has, moreover, to a certain degree had it in his power to procure voluntarily at a set time the conscious presence of the metaphysical, and the desire to enjoy that consciousness of the divine presence offers a strong incentive to cultivate states of possession, quite apart from the need to ask advice and guidance from the spirits.2
The French missionary Junod has particularly stressed this effect of possession in the book mentioned earlier in
this work.
I will even go further and say that at the present time the practice of exorcism amongst the Ba-Ronga is of all their customs the act imbued with the highest religious significance. By devoting themselves with such intensity of passion to these dark ceremonies they are surely seeking to procure that vague emotion awakened in the human soul by contact with the supernatural. They strive to establish intercourse with the Beyond in which they firmly believe. They are not concerned with driving out spirits as were those who expelled demons in the middle ages and in apostolic times, but with getting into touch with them, knowing their name, their history, and ensuring by expiation, by blood, that these mysterious beings will no longer torture the sick by bodily afflictions, but will speak them gently and rather become their protectors. The man on whose behalf the gobela’s practices have been successful will become the friend of the gods. He will acquire a special influence over them and will practise daily intercourse with the spirits.3
Unfortunately the information given in this quotation from Junod, an author generally both detailed and accurate, is so meagre that nothing much can be deduced from it with any degree of certainty. Nevertheless we must be meant to conclude from the expression “speak him gently” that there is no question of true possession by the “protecting spirits,” but of acoustic or “psychic” hallucinations. They would be analogous to the often-quoted cases of C. St. and the Maid of Orlach, who as well as being demoniacally possessed were also attended by beneficent and protecting spirits. These facts are of precisely the same order as true Shamanism.
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