Abstract
Possession of persons by evil spirits has been recognized in various religious traditions, including in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beliefs. Demonic possession in these traditions is not divine in origin and not epiphanic. In the Christian tradition, only demonic possession is contemplated, but in other traditions epiphanic possession is recognized too. Possession, or spirit possession, as it is externally observed in such traditions, is a trance-state in which an individual speaks and acts apparently unconsciously. As subjectively experienced—phenomenally—the individual in a state of possession is possessed by a god or spirit so that the god or spirit speaks and acts through him or her. Under the umbrella of our definition of epiphany, such possessions are epiphanies when the possession is by a god or by a spirit that is benign. For, in such cases, when one is possessed one encounters—indeed, is commandeered by—a god or benign spirit reflective of religious reality. Possession or spirit possession is found in more than one religious tradition. In this chapter, drawing upon the anthropological work of Alfred Métraux, the Haitian form of possession is treated in detail.
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, possession is understood as the possession by a spirit or god, as opposed to taking up or being given a new life, as when St. Paul says, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2.20).
- 2.
Alfred Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, trans. Hugo Charteris (New York: Schocken Books, 1972), p. 141. Voodoo in Haiti was originally published in French as Le Vaudou Haitien in 1958. There are several English words that can be used to designate Haiti’s indigenous religion. These include voodoo, vodou, vodun, and vodoun. Patrick Bellegarde-Smith and Claudine Michel in their introduction to Haítían Vodou: Spirit, Myth, and Reality, ed. Patrick Bellegarde-Smith and Claudine Michel (Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006) observe that “vodou seems to have become the favored name” (p. xxv).
- 3.
Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, p. 82.
- 4.
Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, pp. 120, 122, and 132, and Guerin C. Montilus, “Vodun and Social Transformation in the African Diasporic Experience: The Concept of Personhood in Haitian Vodun Religion,” in Haítían Vodou, pp. 3–4. Montilus speaks of possession as a “period of epiphany.”
- 5.
Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, p. 120.
- 6.
In his study of spirit possession in different cultures, I.M. Lewis distinguishes between trance states and possession. While, as in Haitian Vodou, trance is often regarded as possession, Lewis observes that in some cultures “people are frequently considered to be possessed who are far from being in a trance state.” I.M. Lewis, A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession, 2nd ed. (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), p. 25. Lewis calls “Haitian voodoo” “shamanistic” and sees possessed priests (such as hungans) as shamans (pp. 23, 29, and 41).
- 7.
Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, pp. 121, 122, 126, 127, 129, and 133.
- 8.
Ibid., pp. 123 and 395.
- 9.
Ibid., pp. 125 and 133.
- 10.
Ibid., pp. 132 and 136.
- 11.
Ibid., p. 130.
- 12.
Max-G. Beauvoir, “Herbs and Energy: The Holistic Medical System of the Haitian People,” in Haítían Vodou, p. 129, and Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, p. 131.
- 13.
Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, p. 133.
- 14.
Ibid., p. 33.
- 15.
Ibid., p. 135.
- 16.
Melville J. Herskovits, “Cultural Relativism and Cultural Values,” in Cultural Anthropology (New York: Knopf, 1966), pp. 354–355 (emphasis deleted).
- 17.
Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, p. 143.
- 18.
Ibid., pp. 28 and 118.
- 19.
Ibid., p. 324.
- 20.
Ibid., p. 328.
- 21.
Ibid., p. 332.
- 22.
Ibid., pp. 328 and 332.
- 23.
Ibid., p. 332.
- 24.
Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, p. 323, and Sidney W. Mintz, Introduction to Voodoo in Haiti, p. 5.
- 25.
Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, p. 83. While Haitian Vodouists find no incompatibility between their Vodouism and their Christianity, Métraux describes how both the Catholic Church and Protestant denominations in Haiti have mounted an opposition to Vodou. Protestants in particular saw service of the loa as devil worship and idolatry (as Christian missionaries in India saw worship of Hindu gods as idolatry). Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, pp. 335–352. Métraux is referring specifically to a period around the middle of the twentieth century.
- 26.
Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, pp. 129, 136, and 137.
- 27.
Ibid., p. 130.
- 28.
Ibid., p. 138.
- 29.
Ibid., pp. 86–89, 100, 116, and 124.
- 30.
Ibid., p. 127.
- 31.
Métraux speaks of a Voodoo or Vodou “pantheon,” but he is clear that there is no definitive list of loa and that they may be created and added to the pantheon. He observes that “a great many ancestors and also many hungan and mambo [have been] promoted to the rank of loa after their death.” Voodoo in Haiti, p. 84.
- 32.
In a long letter she wrote in 1942 to Father Jean-Marie Perrin (which is called her “Spiritual Autobiography”), Simone Weil said that when she read George Herbert’s poem “Love” Christ “came down and took possession of me.” Her meaning, though, is that she deeply felt Christ’s presence. She goes on to say that sometimes when she recites the Our Father or Lord’s Prayer, or at other times, “Christ is present with me in person, but his presence is infinitely more real, more moving, more clear than on that first occasion when he took possession of me.” Simone Weil, Waiting for God, trans. Emma Craufurd (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), pp. 68 and 72.
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Kellenberger, J. (2017). Possession. In: Religious Epiphanies Across Traditions and Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53264-6_10
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