THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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in possession by an absolutely evil demonic adversary, other major religious traditions
acknowledge the phenomenon of demonic possession. In the Islamic faith, there are
djinns (genies) and zar spirits which possess their typically female victims, causing
sickness, rebelliousness, and marital discord (Guiley, 1992). In Hindu India, belief in spirit
possession is common, with women attributing a range of personal problems - menstrual
pain, infertility or miscarriage, spouse abuse and infidelity - to evil spirit intervention
(Guiley, 1992). Perhaps the earliest form of primitive treatment for psychological
disturbance was 'trephining', i.e., making holes in victims' skulls in order to liberate evil
spirits (Cavendish, 1975; Prins, 1992).
In ~urope,
the phenomenon ofpossession accompanied the rise of Christianity (Spanos &
Gottlieb, 1979). Up until the 19th Century, those with various forms of psychological
dysfunction were considered to be possessed by demons, even though the alternative
diagnosis of hysteria, as a natural condition, was widely accepted in medical circles
(Spanos & Gottlieb, 1979).
Demonic influence on human beings assumes two forms:
lucid possession/obsession, and somnambulistic or trance possession (Ellenberger, 1970;
Crabtree, 1985). Obsession, or lucid possession refers to a form of demonic influence
whereby an individual's thoughts and fantasies are manipulated into involuntary
preoccupation with 'unclean', sinful, or evil phenomena. The experience of psychic
infiltration, in these instances, co-exists with self-awareness.
Trance/somnambulistic
possession, however, is a more severe form ofdemonic influence, in that it is characterised
by the malevolent spiritual occupation of an individual's body and mind, to the point
where the demonic entity assumes total control of the human host (Cavendish, 1975;
Ellenberger, 1970; Prins, 1992; Robins, 1959). In trance possession, the individual loses
consciousness of self, and speaks with the identity of the supposed intruder. It is
obviously of great consequence whether demons influence one from without, resulting in
obsessions, or manage to invade one's corporeal existence, and so possess one from
within. In the tradition of Catholic theology, the status of true possession is reserved for
the trance variety.
In both forms, however, possession is experienced as "a kind of
psychic parasitism: just as a tapeworm can live in the body, so can a parasitic spirit live in