Witchcraft and possession

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Witchcraft and possession
For thousands of year, all forms of madness, of grossly abnormal behavior and sometimes, of physical disease have been explained in terms of spirit possession. The spirit might be a good, a neutral or an evil one. The numbers of gods, spirits or devils, which have been believed to seize control of human personalities, were legion. What is particularly interesting about so many accounts of possession and exorcism is their marked similarity to modern psychiatric cases.

The term ”possessed” is double-edged in his definition and illustrates the confusion that exists on the whole subject. Literally, the root of the word “possessed” implies that person is actually being inhabited by an alien spirit “sitting within” it, as distinct from “obsessed” which linguistic roots means “sitting by”. As witches were commonly being considered by the devil in the sense of owned by him and also has sexual intercourses either with him or “possessing” demons, the assertion that one was “possessed” applies to both witches and their victims.

However, St Thomas Aquinas argued that possession when it occurs must be due to a willing surrender on the part of the man or the woman because of the opacity of the human soul to devilish scrutiny. Such views excluded that men could be bewitched against their will and identify them during the witch-craze as guilty, not victims.

The signs of possession
According to the doctor of Louis XV, Monsieur de St André in his “lettres au sujet de la magie, sorcellerie et des sorciers” in 1725, it was believed that somebody displaying the following signs was convinced of being possessed by the Devil.

People being able to levitate without any exterior help or art
People being able to speak foreign or unknown languages (glossolalia) without any prior knowledge of them. Inquisitors used to ask questions in foreign languages (german, latin,) and expected answers in the same language.
People being able to inform about events occuring in distant places or in the future.
People being able to discover hidden things without any knowledge of them.
People being able to guess thoughts and feelings that are not expressed to them
Other visible signs of possessions include contortions, unnatural body movements, insults, blasphemies, stigmata or wounds that vanish as quickly as they appear

Hysteria and paranoïa
Much has been written in the last 50 years on the psychology of the witch. It seems obvious, on the evidence of the trials and personal testimonies that in every era a number of people who were accused of witchcraft did believe they to be witches.

Some came even sometimes spontaneously to confess their “crimes”, feeling persecuted or abandoned. We find in much of these cases the symptoms of the classical psychosis, which are senility characterized by delusions as to her own importance and powers.

Frequently, as much emotional abnormality, irrationality and sheer ill will was displayed by the inquisitors, witch-hunters and victims of witchcraft as by the witches themselves.

Even if the number of real cases of mental illness was very low at the time, one isolated case in a town could have excited the milder more generalized but equally irrational paranoid tendencies and prejudices found among otherwise sane members of the community. In such a tense and macabre time, it was easy to raise the fear and justify any individual and collective disaster by the devil’s hand.

In every society and era, there are a certain number of people who believe themselves harmed or threatened. The paranoiacs who today believe that “they” (the police, the government, the aliens, the Jews, the Blacks, the American,) are conspiring against him or his society are the same man as the suspicious citizen of past centuries who accused witches. The focus of the paranoia may vary with times and beliefs but the type of emotions remain constant: the desire to suppress the object of fear. Unchanging too is the paranoid tendency to assign the evil not just to one individual’s malevolence but also to an organized conspiracy of ill-doers; hence the collective prejudice against a mythical-secret society of Jews, witches or aliens. Other constant features include the physical differences between the scapegoat-group and the norm and their plot to multiply their number in order to gain control over society.

Since it was also believed that witches could “shape-shift”, go forth in the spectral form and send their own spirits or those of attendant demons out to inhabit hapless bodies, a plea that somebody was possessed could also be regarded as a protestation of innocence. “Unvolontary possession” could also be considered as legal defense and a let-out. This process was used by Johannes Wier, the father of modern psychiatry, to defend accused witches. In De Preastigiis Daemonum” he blamed the “uninformed and unskilled physicians» for attributing to witchcraft all the disease they were not able to cure.

Self-induced symptoms
A lot of possession cases include the production of hysterical ailments. The person accused in a desire to attract attention and sympathy will readily cast an accusation to justify its own delirium. While the paranoiac develops a distrust and fear of a particular person and then invents his injuries, the hysteric produces symptoms of injury and only then casts out around for a scapegoat on which the blame can be laid. It seems possible that in some cases the hysteric is not completely unconscious about the origin of his self-induced afflictions and therefore finds it necessary to have a good explanation for himself.

There was little realization, in the centuries of persecution, that vomiting pains, disturbance of the senses, impotence, paralysis and fits could be hysterical and psychosomatic ailments. Usually believed by the subject himself to be genuine, they are provoked by the sufferer’s own fear and desire for attention rather than any organic interference.

Hysteria due to repression
One of the oldest charges against witches was that they caused impotence, either by stealing the male organe, or by impeding the conjugal actions of men and women in some less drastic ways. Widely interpreted, it may be taken as distortion of the original fertility cults into a “black” form as well as a manifestation of the Freudian “castration fear” (the rejection of the mother figure and the primitive fear that she is all-powerful and has the power to castrate). As this accusation gradually disappears, it was replaced by symptoms of hysteria among women that pretended to be possessed by male demons or incubes. The earliest such recorded case occurred among a group of nuns at Cambrai in France in 1491. The nuns had fits in which they showed superhuman forces, barked like dogs foretold the future. Eventually the nun who had first begun to have fits and who was therefore the ringleader of the hysteria was “unmasked” as the witch herself. The Loudun, Louviers and Salem affairs were also due to collective hysteria and share the same deadly consequences

Exorcism
The expulsion of an evil spirit by a command, ritual or prayer is called exorcism. At the root of exorcism lies belief in the power to transfer a spiritual being from place to place by ritual acts and words. Exorcism may have originated from old rituals of propritiation dating back from the Hittites of Asia Minor who transmitted to the early romans. The romans before the final assault against a hostile town carried out the evocation. It was a solemn ritual of calling the gods of the enemy. The gods were invited to join Rome with promises of worship and good treatment if they did.Josephus also mentions a method of exorcism prescribed by Solomon, which had "prevailed or succeeded greatly among them down to the present time." Unfortunately, Josephus does not describe the method used.

In the Old Testament, there are no stories of exorcism except the episode of Tobias and Sarah in the Apocryphia (Tobit 6-

. Sarah was not in fact possessed but guarded by a demon, much as in later stories princess were guarded by dragons. In The prayer of Nabodinus, one of the manuscrits from the Qumarn discovery, a Jewish exorcist is credited from the forgiveness of sins and consequent healing. Another apocryphal, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs bears witness to it. Josephus made the claim that God had taught Solomon the art of exorcism but the Scripture has no trace of this. By the time Christ came on earth, exorcism was well known among Jews. All the Gospels refer all the time to the many exorcism conducted by the Christ. Diabolical infection is never confused with exorcism, disease with possession even if some patients suffered from both.

Waterless places are spoken out in the Gospels (Matthew 12.43), as an unsatisfactory abode for evil spirits and it was generally believed that water was their element. As early as 150 AD, the Church began to have an exorcism for the water used for baptism.

Even the coming of Jesus on earth can be interpreted as a giant exorcism on a planet Earth controlled by the Demon. Jesus fooled Satan as he exchanged his life against the world but eventually resuscitated and went back to Heaven.

The practice grew of treating all mental and epileptics as if they were possessed by the Devil. A part of the Church was set aside for those who came within this broad category and exorcists were appointed to stay with these sufferers during the service and keep them quiet. In 251, Pope Cornelius had a total of 52 men as exorcists, readers and doorkeepers. Having preceded baptism, exorcism became to be integrated to it.

The whole world was considered in the power of the Devil and demons were even supposed to live inside the bodies of newborn children. A voluntary renunciation was required of the candidate, because the human will was a key element in the possession, no one could be manoeuvered by the Devil unless he had given his consent. When infants were baptized, sponsors on their behalf undertook the renunciation.

Exorciso te immunde spiritus

Exib ab

In early Christian times every Christian could exorcize but later the Church created a special Order. The ritual has been enriched and amended several times. Leon X imposed the method created by Alberto Castellani in 1523 in his Liber sacerdotalis. In 1614, Paul V created the Roman Ritual that is slightly revised in 1926 and 1952 and still in use.

Human suggestion, by hypnosis or even by telepathy, can go to work upon bodily flaw and weakness and cure the “possessed» by removing the psychosomatic affection.

The great possessed
In the Old Testament, the Witch from Endor (Samuel XXVIII, 7) was called Behalath-Ob (Mistress of the Python) and summoned the spirit of Samuel for the King Saül.

According to the Church, many saints have been tormented, tempted and possessed by demons. Following the temptation of Jesus in the desert, we find St Antoine and St Benoit, St Dominique, St Thomas Aquina, St François d’Assise, St Magdeleine of Pazzi, St Catherine of Sienne, St Angèle of Foligno, St Jean of the Cross

Jean-Marie Vianney, a french priest called “le curé d’Ars” from the village where he lived was canonized in 1925 by Pie XI. He pretended to have been persecuted by the devil during 35 years from 1824 to 1858. The phenomenon that had several witnesses mostly occurs in the priest’s house and was similar to poltergeists.

Jeanne Fery, a 25 years-old nun from a covent at Mons (Belgium) pretended to be possessed from the age of 4 and was exorcized many times with the usual signs and manifestations until 1620 when she admitted the fraud.

Elizabeth de Ranfaing managed to have executed a doctor named Poirot in 1621 at Nancy after being possessed at the Covent she founded.

Marie des Vallées (1590-1656) was possessed during all her life and had given accurate descriptions of Hell where God himself sent her.

According to Father Boudon, Marie-Angélique de la Providence was followed during two years by a demon that was looking a like green dog.

Luther has struggled against the devil during most of his life. He had faithfully written the dialogs he had with Satan.

There are many more possessed in the official story of the Christian Church and in almost all European countries.

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Definition of possession
This direct assault covers what the Bible refers to as "demon possession," the outright control of human personality by the power of a wicked spirit. It also extends to such activities as soothsaying, occultism, spiritism (or spiritualism), and related black magic arts such as astrology, fortune telling, …

Demon possession is defined by the a human who has become inhabited or "taken over" by a demon and who cannot, consequently, exercise his own will - Mark, Chapter 5, ver. 12.

First, the Bible itself is very careful to distinguish between mental illness and demon possession. The writers of the Scriptures were certainly aware of this distinction. One of them, Luke, was a physician himself and was certainly acquainted with the distinctions between diseases and mental illnesses, as well as demon possession. In Matthew 4:24 a careful distinction is made between those who were afflicted by diseases, those who were demon possessed, and those who were lunatic or mentally ill. Luke refers to the same thing in Luke 4:40-41.

It should be noticed that ancients also had a sort of faith in the prophetic words spoken by those whom they believed to be possessed by demons, and this was sometimes a component of ancient oracles. Later, exorcists of the Church have stried to improve its knowledge of demons and theology by asking precise questions to the (demons that occupied) possessed.

Symptoms of Demon Possession
Demon possession may last for relatively brief periods of time for any one individual. The rest of the time, the victim of demon possession may appear normal by social standards. Only when a demon is in residence will its presence be detectable in terms of the behavior of the victim.

The behavior of these short-term victims of demon possession is characterized by four basic symptoms. These symptoms may appear alone or in groups, for just seconds of time, and in varying degrees of intensity. The four basic symptoms are: violence, lust, greed, and an unnatural power of persuasion.

Satan, the Prince of Demons, seems to use three different activities or approaches in his attacks by demons. It is only at the last step that the subject has lost all his free-will and is totally under control of the Devil.

Oppression

In Acts 10:38 we read that Jesus went about "healing all that were oppressed by the devil; for God with with him." The original word means "to exercise dominion against one, to be overpowered." The demons put pressure upon and exercise harsh control over one who is oppressed.

Obsession

Secondly, we read of people who were "vexed with unclean spirits" and were healed (Lk. 6:18, Acts 5:16). Webster's dictionary defines obsession as "to haunt or be troubled in mind to an abnormal degree; the state of being obsessed with an idea, desire, emotion - one that cannot be got rid of by reasoning."

Possession

Thirdly, Scripture speaks of some "possessed of demons" and indwelt by them (LK 8:36; Acts 8:7; 16:16). Possession means to be completely under the control of a demon. Those thus afflicted in the time of the Lord expressed the mind and consciousness of the demon or demons indwelling them.

Familiar spirits
One of the activities of evil spirits mentioned in the Bible is that of "familiar" or "divining" spirits. These demons appear to have the ability to rouse the dead from their ordained sleep. They also seem to be able to foretell the future, to some extent. The first mention we see of these spirits in the Scriptures is a warning from God to avoid consorting with them or the mediums that contact them.

"Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God."Leviticus 19:31

"And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people."Leviticus 20: 6

"A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them."Leviticus 20:27

“There shall not be found in thee one who purges his son or his daughter with fire, one who uses divination, who deals with omens, and augury, a sorcerer employing incantation, one who has in him a divining spirit, an observer of signs, questioning the dead.”Deuteronomy 18:10

“Then Saul said to his servants, Seek for me a woman who has in her a divining spirit, and I will go to her, and enquire of her: and his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman who has in her a divining spirit at Aendor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he goes, and two men with him, and they come to the woman by night; and he said to her, Divine to me, I pray thee, by the divining spirit within thee, and bring up to me him whom I shall name to thee. And the woman said to him, Behold now, thou knowest what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who had in them divining spirits, and the wizards from the land, and why dost thou spread a snare for my life to destroy it?”I Samuel 28:7

“It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, "These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation." She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment.” Acts 16:16

Cases of possession in the New Testament
Cases of possession are numerous in the New Testament and Jesus appears a the great figure of the “Exorcist” among his people. This practice seems to be inherited from the Apolyptical sects.

Below are a few of the examples available from the Scriptures records where evil spirits possessed and took up residence within human beings..

“There was a man in the synagogue who had a spirit, an unclean demon. And he cried out: ‘Ah! What have we to do with you, Jesus, the Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you, you are the Holy One of God.’ And Jesus rebuked him and said: ‘Hold your peace and come out of him.’ And when the demon had thrown him down in front of them, he came out of him without hurting him...” Verse 41: “And demons went out from many, the demons crying out and saying ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God.’ And he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew him to be the Messiah.” Luke 4:33

“But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And He was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 28 But she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs." And He said to her, "Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter." And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.”Mark 7:25

“Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He stepped out on the land, there met him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!" For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him, saying, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion," because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss [abusson]. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.“ Luke 8:26

The notion that the name of Jesus in itself has power over demons was disproved by the Biblical incident of the Jewish exorcists who attempted to use the names of Jesus and the apostle Paul as magical words of power to cast out a possessing demon from a man. The demon said through the voice of its human host "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?".

Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches." Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.Acts 19:11

The case of Judas
Judas Iscariot was chosen as the twelfth apostle by Jesus and later betrayed him. At first glance, the Lord could be considered faulty for having put his trust into a potential traitor.

Strangely we hear that Jesus knew Judas’ real character from the very beginning.

"Have not I chosen twelve, and one of you is the devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him" (Jn. 6:70-71).

Judas was covetous and a thief. He stole out of the treasury bag of the apostolic band as John 12:6 tells us. We find him later going to the chief of priests of the Jews and saying to them"

"What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought to betray him" (Matt. 26:14-16).

At the last supper, the Lord dipped a morsel of bread in sauce and gave it to Judas. This was a custom of the host to honor a guest and it is indicated as a pledge of love .The next thing we read of Judas is that when the Passover supper was ended, the devil "now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son to betray him" (Jn. 13:2).

Judas was already tempted and sinful before Satan possessed him. Despite the three and one-half years he spent in the company of Jesus, his heart was untouched by all, never yielded his heart and soul to Christ. He carried out his thievery and covetousness which opened his heart to carry out Satan's evil design.

When Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, "He felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, 'I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.' But they said, 'What is that to us? See to that yourself!' And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hung himself" (Matt. 27:3-5). Instead of repenting to God, he went out and committed suicide. So Peter later said: "Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place" (Acts 1:25). He did not go to paradise as the repentant, dying thief did. How sad is the history of Judas who sold his soul to Satan for money. It was truly as the Lord said, "It had been good for that man if he had never been born" (Matt. 26:24).

The case of modern possession
Some believe that the majority, and perhaps all, of the senseless crimes of violence, torture, perversion and hatred committed in the modern world can be attributed to the actions of possessing demons who have succeed in their efforts to tempt human beings to sins of evil, and having gained control over sinners by this means, are then free to use them as instruments to commit even greater works of evil

The late-afternoon TV talk shows and tabloids, as well as the legitimate press, provide multitudes of case studies which document the classic symptoms of demon possession singly and in various combinations and degrees of intensities.

This affirmation can be supported by the many interviews of serial-killers and other criminals that attribute their sins to some alien evil.

Ted Bundy was featured in a February 1996 A & E cable broadcast of the program Biography moderated by Jack Perkins. The program said this about an outside force which contributed to Bundy's crimes:

Now again, he would never admit that he "heard voices," because he knew that was insane. But, he would describe someone as "another Ted". This other Ted would start talking to him in this growling voice and point out that this woman thinks you could never have her. 'Look at her walking by. What is she thinking about you ...' And work him up into this hatred where then he would start this process of stalking ..."

Witchcraft and possession

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