Geral Blanchard, LPC, is a psychotherapist who is university trained in psychology and anthropology. Formerly of Wyoming and currently residing in Iowa, Geral travels the world in search of ancient secrets that can augment the art and science of healing. From Western neuroscience to Amazonian shamanism, he has developed an understanding of how to combine old and new healing strategies to optimize recovery, whether from psychological or physical maladies.
Spirit Possession
Geral T. Blanchard • Jun 26, 2022
The idea of possessions, or being possessed, has been around for most of recorded history.
Ancient shamans, and later religious priests, were tasked with the responsibility of understanding this kind of invasive dilemma and how to alleviate it. One common solution is exorcism. The many varieties of exorcism strategies have varied from culture to culture, century to century. Let’s take a closer look.
Two key words need to be understood. Spirit and possession. Spirit can be
understood as the energy or influence that permeates our being. It is like an
aliveness, a life force, or a vibration that can offer energy or deplete it.
We have spirit, others have spirit, and sometimes they collide with loving results.
Spirits can come together with great healing power to overcome an illness. In the
Christian religion, the spirit or revitalizing power of Jesus is thought to hold the
power to save believers during tumultuous times. But on other occasions the
influence of a negative or satanic spirit can feel dreadful. That is the focus of this
article.
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Possessions have long been studied by anthropologists and theologians; they
have been observed over time in most societies. They can be defined as
situations when an outside supernatural power is believed to have taken control
of a person’s body, mind, and wellbeing. Like an infection, these mental intruders
can linger and may need well thought out procedures for a successful removal.
The most notable word for this type of cathartic expulsion is exorcism.
An exorcism is usually a very dramatic and powerful event as I have repeatedly
witnessed in South Africa. The possessed, often using the assistance of a priest,
will jointly, loudly, powerfully, aggressively, and emotionally throw off the
darkness “In the name of Jesus,” a strong symbolic force. Here we see a
combination of forces: casting off spirits with a powerful external force while
infusing the possessed with a Christian belief that affords internal strength – both
a ridding and absorbing process. By assembling community support during an exorcism or healing ceremony, the merged forces magnify increased power over dangerous spirits. Multiple higher levels of healing power strengthen patients: a) the healer/priest, b) a higher power (e.g., Jesus, God, Holy Spirits), and c) dramatic community rituals when widely shared healing beliefs are being employed.
Possession can only occur if, at the same time, there is a depossession of the self. In other words a part of our being – our soul – is lost, relinquished, or some would say, stolen. Soul loss or soul theft is language that is commonly applied. Often this takes place when an influential and forceful person enters a person’s life and never seems to exit, even after their physical departure or death. One doesn’t even have to be able to pinpoint who it is, but the influence can be overwhelming and lasting. I call such depleting people emotional vampires.
These vampires suck the life blood, the healthy energy, from individuals. Their victims are left feeling uncertain and fearful, timidly looking over their shoulder for other invaders. Lookalikes (or should I say “feelalikes”) come along – a similar boss, neighbor, colleague, or a new partner and what was thought to be a problem once successfully addressed resurfaces again.
Sometimes a person divorces, moves, quits a job and a negative spirit seems to follow them. But maybe, because they have deeply absorbed a thought virus (called a “wetigo”) it always accompanies folks wherever they go, at least until they depossess it – challenge and get rid of this reactivity -- cast it off.
Some cultures offer a second treatment approach, accommodation. This is like recognizing the force that is in a person but choosing to work with it, guide it, and eventually manage it. In part, this thinking is similar to the old psychoanalytical philosophy that says, “what we resist will persist.” Fighting something too much is like attaching to it, being glued to it rather than releasing it. By demonstrating personal alarm (to one’s self or the dark force) a person signals they can be defeated and, in so doing, they can fuel or further empower the invading spirits.
Alternately, as Martin Luther King Jr. taught us, it may be more effective to see this energy as potential fuel whereby it can be transmuted into something new and stronger, sort of like “spiritual composting.” A person makes something better out of it.
An example of transmutation is often seen in indigenous communities of Africa and South America. After a person has fallen grievously ill or has been infected by an evil spirit, perhaps by a hex, many cultures believe they experience a
calling. It is certainly painful but also a life changing awakening that causes a person to do good in response to this energy, challenging evil with forces of love and healing service. Paradoxically, as Saint Francis advised: “It is giving that we receive, it is consoling that we are consoled…”
Many people who initially felt broken by the curse of another, eventually found it offered them an opportunity for a breakthrough rather than a breakdown. Like a stiff wind, it could either blow them over or, like an airplane, lift them up.
Much of it had to do with personal choice. Many people on the receiving end of harmful spirits discovered their true calling after being infected with something negative. Many shift careers and become professional caregivers, responding to unkind force with kind service.
Again, think of MLK who said the only effective way to counter hate and evil is by ramping up our capacity to love. Again and again he said, love is the antidote. It gives us psychological immunity. But Martin also preached, “Love is mankind’s most potent weapon for personal and social transformation.” Additionally, he advised, “A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.” So how we stand in the face of threats and ugliness determines the eventual outcome…who will eventually win. As much as people are inclined to concentrate on the eradication of evil, one must concentrate more heavily on the advancement of love. One’s posture can be to either react, or to respond; there is a significant difference. The first is knee-jerk, the latter is thoughtful.
A second process of accommodation can entail joining a support group. Not one that merely regurgitates narratives of exploitation, despair, and helplessness that further entrenches a victim identity, but affiliations that staunchly oppose evil spirts and thereby whips up healing energy. A community that professes effusive or big love (vs. resentment and righteousness), refusing to be blown off course by countervailing winds, heals all its participants.
In some African and Haitian indigenous societies an empowering response can include involvement in predominantly women’s possession cults. They can be regarded as part of an uplifting movement. Collectively, many women’s cults offer each other support to gain mastery over harmful spirits, often after being in oppressive and controlling relationships with men, or from being touched by dark male divinities. With dances (like a “danced religion”) and other cathartic rituals, possessed devotees find their voice and give expression to long suppressed desires and ambitions. Previously damned-up emotions are released in a contagious healing ceremony.
There have also been male depossession cults, and almost universally, they are formed by subordinated and dispossessed (expelled) groups of people, like slaves. One can become a leader within this type of cult -- whether male or female – and, in effect, climb a social ladder and become a prominent person in the public eye. What was once regarded as a debilitating affliction, when approached adroitly, can be transformative.
Another way of finding peace is almost the opposite of an exorcism or depossession. It is more about reclaiming one’s previous self rather than evicting an invader. This can be another important distinction and may reflect one’s personal beliefs and style.
Many shamans, and even contemporary healers, call this approach a soul retrieval. It is about reclaiming a person’s original goodness, one’s childlike innocence before it was contaminated by dark forces in the world around them. What is being reclaimed is the divine (Godly) benevolence everyone was born with, quite the opposite of the worldly malevolence (evil) that was delivered to the doorstep of the mind.
To be effective, this therapeutic process relies on carefully crafted behaviors and rituals, often conducted in sacred ceremonies that lift a person from the depths of fear and despair to the original and pure version of themselves. So, it can be described as a homecoming rather than casting another person out of their home or their life. There may be no need to once again move your body and physical possessions or to run from anything or anyone. Instead you become depossessed by moving inner energy, including that of the emotional vampires that found their way into your soul, not simply your house.
No matter which approach best matches the belief system of an afflicted person, one goal always remains the same: empower yourself in all avenues of your life, not just in relationship to dark forces. Your spirit force, your soul force, can be bolstered so it can overcome most any external threat. Don’t assume the power resides outside of you. Demons don’t possess you, they momentarily influence you.
More information can be found in two of my more recent books:
Transcending Trauma and
Awakening the Healing Soul: Indigenous Wisdom for Today’s World.
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Other Topics
Basics of MDMA
Rituals and Ceremony
Brain and MDMA
Trauma
Heart
Energy Movement
Quantum Physics
Native Cosmologies
Nature
Spirituality/Enlightenment
Kogi Tribe
Books written by Geral T. Blanchard
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