An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

concern as to whether she was breathing as her limbs were floppy and she was not moving.One of the praying ladies asked everyone else to move away from her (to avoid crowdingher and to allow those praying some space). Then one lady said ‗she is possessed bydemons.‘ During this time the rest of the congregation (about 150 people) looked on andthe moderator stopped the service. After about twenty minutes of animated activities by thepraying ladies around the prostrate lady, the prostrate lady appeared more conscious andwas assisted from the service by the praying ladies who continued to pray for her in anadjoining room. The moderator then continued the service.About thirty minutes later the praying party and the ‗spirit possessed‘ lady rejoined theservice.This she did as though nothing unusual had happened as she was not aware thatthe service was stopped for thirty minutes because the spirit was dealing with her. The ladylater testified that she has been released from the obstacles which had prevented her fromsurrendering her life to God. Throughout the encounter, the person looked uncomfortableas though she was really suffering.It was not possible to ascertain if there was indeed spirit possession and there was noindication outside the prayer session that such was the case with this lady. It did appearthat she was experiencing an internal conflict and this could be reminiscent of Jung‟s(1959) speculations about demon possession. Jung (1959: 323-324) postulated thatpossessing spirits directly relates to archetypes. “It may even happen that the archetypalfigures, which are endowed with a certain autonomy anyway on account of theirluminosity, will escape from conscious control altogether and become completelyindependent, thus producing the phenomenon of possession".215