CHAPTER XII. POSSESSION, IF AN OBJECTIVE REALITY, NEITHER INCREDIBLE NOR

CONTRARY TO THE ASCERTAINED TRUTHS OF MENTAL SCIENCE.

I now proceed to the consideration of the remaining alternative, the truth of which the form of the narrative seems most to favour, viz., that our Lord accepted the distinction between possession and mania; and that during those times possessions were actual occurrences.

In considering this subject, it will be necessary to pay attention to the distinction to which I have referred in the previous chapter, that even if many of the phenomena that accompanied possession were due to superhuman agency, the Gospels are by no means pledged to any particular theory of the _modus operandi_ by which the phenomena were brought about. What I mean is that these phenomena might have been due to a superhuman agency, without involving the fact that the demon had a local habitation either in the body or the spirit of the man. All that the Gospels can be taken to affirm is, that the evil spirit in some way or other, of which we are ignorant, held the man in a state of thraldom, made his mental powers the subject of a divided consciousness, overpowered the functions of his reason and his will, and through his action on the mind used for his own purposes the organs of his body. The writers of the New Testament are pledged to no theory as to how such results were effected. They have simply reported the phenomena as they presented themselves to their observation. In doing this, the language which they have employed denotes local habitation; but the words used in stilling the storm make it quite clear that the literal meaning cannot be pressed. Considering the general character of these narratives, it is impossible to pledge them to the particular mode in which these results were brought about.

One circumstance seems to militate against the supposition that possession involved nothing but simple mania, namely, the numbers of those who are spoken of as possessed. If the Gospel narratives are historical, it would appear that such cases were numerous. Not only are several miracles of this description definitely recorded, but the Evangelists several times affirm that our Lord cured demoniacs in considerable numbers, without furnishing us with the details. Now it is difficult to believe that maniacs existed in such large numbers in a country of the size and population of Judæa. Yet all the phenomena of possession point to maniacal, and not to harmless lunacy. The number of the cases of mania that occur bears but a small proportion to those of the latter form of derangement. It is true that at times of popular excitement various forms and numerous cases of frenzy manifest themselves; but these differ from mania, though they not unfrequently terminate in it. I have made these observations, because, in discussing such a subject, it is only right to state fully the difficulties with which particular theories are attended. It is very probable, however, that as the symptoms so closely resembled each other, many cases of actual mania would be confounded in popular estimation with possession, and, therefore, that cases of actual possession may not have been so numerous as at first sight would appear.

On the supposition that possession was a reality, we have no means of determining what moral or physical preconditions were necessary for its manifestation. It is clear that the authors of the Gospels must have considered that it was owing to some predisposing causes, physical or moral, though they have not described them. Unless this was the case, the evil, instead of being partial, would have been universal. Various moral causes would naturally form a suitable precondition for its manifestation. There can be no doubt that a number of vices, when indulged in beyond a certain point, reduce man’s moral being to a wreck and render him obnoxious to the action of external agency. The power of self‐control may be indefinitely weakened. If vice is carried to its extreme forms, it produces phenomena hardly, if at all, distinguishable from madness. Such a state of man’s moral nature would form a suitable precondition to enable a superhuman being to overpower the reason and the will, the supremacy of which was already impaired by an influence from within. In such cases possession would have been rendered possible by a man’s self‐induced moral corruption.

The testimony of history proves that during the century which preceded and that which followed the Advent, the state of moral corruption was extreme. Men were sated with the old, and craving for new and unheard of forms of sensual gratification. The old class of ideas, moral and religious, were gradually dying out, and men were eagerly seeking for something to fill the void. There consequently never was a time when a greater number of abnormal forms of thought burst on the human mind, which was shaken to its utmost depths. The outbreak of fanaticism combined with moral wickedness, which displayed itself forty years after in the Jewish war of independence, is probably without a parallel in the history of man. For this there must have been years of preparation. A somewhat similar state of things existed in the Pagan world, which led to the production of numerous religious charlatans and impostors. The times were characterised by an extravagance of thought on almost every subject, philosophy itself forming no exception. Such an abnormal mental condition was peculiarly suited to the reception of external mental influences, if we suppose them possible.

But I am bound to admit that the facts recorded in the Gospels prove that possession was not always the result of moral degradation. This is proved by the case of the youth, whose possession the father directly connects with lunacy, and says that it had seized him from a child. In this case the cause which rendered the possession possible must have been physical, probably a derangement of the nervous system.

If I understand rightly the position which is taken by those who affirm that possession was mania, and nothing else, it is as follows. It is alleged that at certain periods of history, the belief in possession has been widely spread. Possessions are unknown in modern times; and all the instances which have been alleged are either cases of mania or delusion. The belief in it has gradually died away as knowledge has advanced. In former times it generated a number of grotesque stories, which were pure inventions of the imagination heated by enthusiasm. Such facts as were real may be referred to madness as their cause. The others are simply disbelieved. Under the influence of increasing knowledge, there has arisen a widespread belief in modern times, that there is nothing superhuman in the causes of such phenomena, but that they are due to influences existing within the mind itself. This, as it is affirmed, being true of all the alleged instances of possession in the modern world, it is inferred that similar ones in the ancient world are equally unreal; and if we had the requisite data before us, we should be able to refer them all to ordinary human causes.

With respect to the general fact, there can be no doubt that advancing knowledge has caused a general disbelief in the reality of any modern form of possession, or of witchcraft. The supreme grotesqueness of the phenomena of the latter has caused the belief in it to perish under the influence of common sense, aided by an increased acquaintance with sound principles of causation, and the stability of the operations of nature. Still it is incorrect to affirm that the prevalence of such beliefs has been due to no other cause than universal ignorance. The belief in witchcraft produced its most unhappy results during the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, in the very age of Bacon, Shakespeare, and Raleigh. Such beliefs originate in certain principles of our minds whose gratification consists in the contemplation of the marvellous, the action of which I shall consider hereafter. They have existed in every condition of society, and only changed the form of their manifestation. Those who boast of our freedom from such delusions, owing to the superior light of the nineteenth century, seem to have forgotten the existence at the present day of a belief in spiritualism, which is little, if at all, less absurd than witchcraft, though the former has encountered a less severe treatment than the latter. This has been more due to the improvement of our humanity than to our knowledge of physical science. It is a fact that spiritualism is believed in by multitudes; and its votaries belong far more to the cultivated class of society than to the ignorant and the vulgar. What the witch mania was to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, spiritualism is to the nineteenth. It is the peculiar form rather than the possibility of such delusions that has passed away.

It should be observed also that the demoniacal supernaturalism of the monastic writers, and of the middle ages, differs from that of the New Testament to such a degree that they cannot fairly be compared. In the former the apparition of demons and departed spirits was a thing of constant occurrence; in the latter, never. To the monks the devil was continually appearing in the most phantastic forms, and performing the most grotesque miracles. To this form of demonology modern spiritualism can put in very strong claims to be esteemed the genuine successor. The heated imagination of even such a man as Luther suggested to him that he saw Satan in visible reality. It is worthy of remark that St. Paul knew nothing of visible Satanic manifestations. With him they were invariably spiritual.

It is important to keep steadily in view the fact, that the New Testament invariably represents possession as consisting in the action of a stronger mind on a weaker one. The influence which the demon exerted on the bodily organs might have been effected through the agency of the man himself. It is never described as involving a visible manifestation of the demon, but his action is one which is purely mental and spiritual. His presence and his departure were simply judged of by their effects.

It follows, therefore, that the denial of the possibility of an influence of this kind must rest on a very wide principle. It cannot be confined to such action alone, but must go to the extent of denying the possibility of the action of all spiritual beings on the mind of man. The only principle on which the denial can rest is, that our mental science has so far succeeded in analyzing all the past and present operations of the human mind, that it is justified in affirming that they all originate entirely within the mind itself; and are never brought about by an action on it from without by any invisible agent. If this is the principle on which the denial rests, it will be equally valid to exclude the action of God on our minds, as well as that of all other invisible beings. It will doubtless be urged that it is only intended to deny the action of invisible evil beings. But if it is true that our mental philosophy has ascertained that all our thoughts originate either in the mind itself, or in the mind acted on by external nature, or by other men, the principle must be valid for proving that all other spiritual agency exerted on the mind is impossible, and that all supposed instances of it are delusions. It is impossible on this principle to exclude the evil agency, and not to exclude the good also.

It is evident that this principle is far too broad to be used for the purpose of affirming the impossibility of the action of external evil agents only. It is based on the supposition that our mental philosophy is so complete as to be able to assign even the most abnormal portions of our mental action to definite and known forces, all of which originate within the mind itself, and are never due to external influences. If mental philosophy could establish this as a fact, it would doubtless prove that possession was impossible; but it could prove a great deal more, even that God never acted on or influenced the spirit of man. But if there is any one phenomenon of the mind, of the origin of which we are ignorant, the whole principle is vitiated, for that very phenomenon may be caused by the action of an external power. The real point of the controversy therefore is, Is our mental science thus complete? Has it been able to reduce all our mental phenomena, including the most abnormal of them, to the action of known forces? Has it analyzed our mental powers to their inmost depths? Until it has done this, it is impossible to affirm that the abnormal actions of the mind may not be occasioned by an external agency.

It will probably be urged, that although our philosophy has not yet succeeded in assigning all our mental phenomena to the action of known forces, it hopes to accomplish this hereafter; and that its past conquests ought to be accepted as a pledge of its future performances; and that the time will certainly come, when it will be able to refer every mental phenomenon to a cause originating in the mind itself, and acting in conformity with invariable law. Promises, however, are not performances; what is requisite to impart validity to wide affirmations is present actual knowledge, not the hope that future scientific conquests will be extended over the entire regions of the unknown. Science professes to walk by sight and not by faith. In a subject of this kind it is most unphilosophical to assume that the possibilities of the future are the realities of the present; and to enunciate propositions whose validity rests solely on the fact that they are so.

I will now definitely state the principle which can alone give any scientific value to the assertion, that such demoniacal action as that which is described in the New Testament, is unbelievable. It is as follows: that we have so completely ascertained the nature of the forces which act on our minds, and the laws which regulate them, that we know as a scientifically established truth, that they all originate either in our own mental organization, or in the action of other men on our minds. The statement of the principle in this distinct form at once shows that it is invalid.

It is impossible for one moment to affirm that our knowledge is so complete, that we have a scientific acquaintance with the causes of all our varied mental phenomena, and the laws which regulate them. We have ascertained the nature of several of our mental processes; but how small a portion of man’s mental activity do they embrace. I need only particularize a few of which we are in complete ignorance, as to the forces which generate them, and the laws which regulate their action.

First, with respect to Genius. Genius is a mental power which manifests itself only on rare occasions. Who can affirm that we have ascertained the law which regulates its birth? We may judge from analogy that this, as other things, follows a law of some kind; but respecting the causes which give it birth our philosophy is profoundly ignorant. Nor have we any knowledge of its mode of action. It manifests itself in various forms. There is the genius which makes the poet, the philosopher, the scientific discoverer, the orator, the politician, and many others. How those who are possessed of this power effectuate their mental operations, or how their great ideas originate in their minds is a subject which exceeds the limits of our scientific knowledge. Take for example the genius of the poet. Whence came, and what was the nature of that intuitive power with which Shakespeare was endowed, or how was it called into exercise? We call such powers intuitions. We say that a great poet is endowed with a species of inspiration. What is this but to confess our entire ignorance both of the origin and the mode of his mental operations. Probably the poet himself would be unable to give us any analysis of the origin of his own thoughts, or of the laws that regulate them. How then can we venture to affirm that they must all originate in the mind itself, and not be due to the action of some external power? The habit of speaking of his inspirations, from which scientific men are not exempt, proves our complete ignorance both of its nature and origin.

But to descend to a humbler sphere—our own minds. We are all conscious that thoughts rush into them in a most unbidden manner, and that we pass through mental states which our analysis is unable to explain. Can any man affirm, however deep may be his philosophy, that the known laws of association of ideas are adequate to account for all the mental phenomena of which he has been conscious? Who has not had experience of severe efforts to realize something in thought, which have ended in failure, and that the right thing has suddenly come into his mind uncalled and unbidden? Not unfrequently has a sudden thought entered the mind (we know not whence it came) which has entirely changed the whole current of a previous life. Still more frequently has a happy idea occurred to us, the origin of which it is impossible to trace. Who again has not had experience of the sudden rushing of a temptation into his mind with an all but overwhelming force, even while his thoughts were occupied with subjects in no way allied to the suggestion? Many of our mental phenomena may be explained by the principle of association of ideas and other known mental powers; but who can venture to affirm that they are adequate to account for all the various states of which he has been conscious, or that some of them have not originated in suggestions from without? Scientific knowledge is certainly able to make no such affirmation.

Next: there are numerous abnormal conditions to which the mind is unquestionably subject. Who will venture to affirm that he has penetrated to their depths, or ascertained the laws which regulate their action? These have a most important bearing on the present subject. They are best designated by the term phrenzy. Their aspect is very varied. They differ in many respects from mania, though they are closely allied to it. They are confined to no one race of men, but are co‐extensive with human nature. They were prevalent in the ancient world, and connected with various forms of religious belief. They display themselves with peculiar violence in the religious rites of savages. In Oriental countries at the present day, they frequently manifest themselves and assume a great variety of aspects. Examples might be easily adduced. The phrenzied fanatic often presents indications of his mind being acted on by an overwhelming external influence; and when under the influence of the rites of a degraded religion, the symptoms present no little resemblance to those which accompanied demoniacal possession.

I have no wish to affirm that such phenomena must be due to an action of this kind, but to draw attention to the fact that we are ignorant of the power in which they originate, and that such being the case, it is quite possible that their most violent and terrible forms may be aroused by the influence of a power external to the mind itself. Equally ignorant are we of the causes of even their milder manifestations. Whatever may be the hopes which are entertained of the future triumphs of science, it is not too much to assert, that it has not yet reduced these abnormal conditions of the mind to any thing like a scientific law, and that it has not succeeded in tracing the phenomena to the exclusive operation of a force acting within the mind itself. In truth our mental science is ignorant of their causes: and for aught that it can affirm to the contrary, many of them may be due to causes human, superhuman, or a combination of the two. In cases where we are profoundly ignorant, dogmatical assertions should be carefully avoided. While such phenomena are incapable of explanation by the action of known mental forces, the students of mental science are not justified in affirming that possession contradicts its known truths.

I fully admit, however, that there is a system of professed mental science, which, if its truth could be proved, would establish the fact that possession was impossible. I need hardly say that I allude to that which affirms that thought is the result of a function of the brain, and nothing else. According to the views of these philosophers, the brain secretes thought as a gland secretes its own peculiar secretion. Until this philosophy has succeeded in proving the truth of its first principles, it is useless to consider its bearing on this particular question.

There is another abnormal mental condition, the existence of which is unquestionable, and which has a close connection with the present question, namely, the ecstatic state. The forms in which this has manifested itself have been extremely various, and it is impossible for any one to assert that our mental philosophy has fully fathomed them, and has succeeded in assigning them to forces originating within the mind itself. On the contrary it is not too much to affirm that it has as yet wholly failed to analyze its nature, or to account for the abnormal powers displayed by the mind when in this condition. In the ancient world this state of mind was closely connected with the manifestations of the prophetic power, the reality of which was recognized by many of its philosophers. It will of course be observed that I am not speaking of this power as it existed in the Jewish church, but of its supposed manifestations in the heathen world. Similar ecstatic states have frequently displayed themselves in modern times. When in this condition the mind is especially liable to be acted on by external influences. Is it possible, I ask, in the present state of our mental philosophy, to assert that we know their nature, or the forces which produce them? The ecstatic in union with a phrenzied state of the mind was apparently the condition of the Delphian priestess when she delivered oracles to those who consulted her. According to all the accounts that we possess, she presented the appearance of being subject to an overpowering external influence. Every other description which we possess of the manifestation of this prophetic power, (and we have several) describes it as presenting phenomena closely allied to raving madness, an influence of some kind apparently overpowering the prophet’s personality. Until the forces which produced these phenomena in the ancient world, and the somewhat similar ones which have been manifested in modern times, can be shown to owe their origin to forces originating in the mind itself, and to nothing else, it is absurd to affirm that such a phenomenon as possession is in contradiction to our scientific knowledge of the human mind.

There is another point which demands our attention, namely, the close connection between the extreme forms of moral wickedness, and madness. It is an unquestionable fact that nothing is more difficult than to draw the precise line where moral wickedness ends, and madness begins. In their great outlines they are easily distinguishable, but in the more advanced stages of moral evil, the one passes into the other by insensible degrees. So difficult is it to lay down the precise line which separates them, that scientific men are not wanting, who affirm that every extreme case of moral wickedness is a species of mania. Consistently with this theory frequent efforts are made to save the most abandoned criminals from the consequences of their crimes. If the principle is correct, it is impossible not to assign lesser degrees of moral evil to the same cause. Such a principle logically leads to the denial of any distinction between moral and physical action. Happily however, although this conclusion is one which has been arrived at by a considerable number of physicists, it is one which the common sense of mankind steadily refuses to accept. It is sufficient for the present purpose, that extreme forms of moral evil shade off into mania by insensible degrees; and that ultimately they are capable of producing insanity. If insanity can be produced by moral causes, it follows that a superhuman influence powerful for evil, acting on a degraded moral nature, may be attended with a similar result, and produce such a phenomenon as possession.

But further: while madness is produced by physical causes, it is a certain fact that it is frequently occasioned by causes purely mental. Of this the instances are innumerable. These mental causes react on the brain and the nervous system; and thus they superinduce disease on those parts of our bodily organization by means of which the mind exercises its powers. Still the disease itself originates in causes that are not seated in the body, but in the mind. The mind is therefore capable of acting powerfully on our bodily frame. If therefore possession be viewed as the action of one mind on another, there is no reason why it should not be able to superinduce those forms of bodily derangement which exhibited themselves in the demoniacs by the simple action of the mind upon the body. The mental causes capable of producing mania are, as we know, of a varied description; and among them is the action and influence which one mind is capable of exerting on another. As, therefore, in certain states of our minds, or of our nervous system, mania with all its results can be produced by the simple action of mind on mind, and through the action of the mind disorder may be produced in our bodily organization, there can be no reason why possession with all its attendant phenomena should not originate in similar causes. There is nothing to imply that the superhuman agency manifested in possession was directly exerted on the body of the possessed. An agency which was entirely mental was fully adequate to produce all the phenomena with which it was accompanied.

In cases of mania produced by mental action the removal of the exciting cause is the precondition of its cure, and in many cases effects it. Similarly, in cases of possession the removal of the exciting cause would produce similar results.

It follows, therefore, from the foregoing considerations, that the allegation that the possessions described in the New Testament are incredible, because they contradict the known truths of mental science, is disproved.

The question really resolves itself into the following one: Do evil beings, other than men, exist in the universe? Or, if they exist, is it credible that they are allowed to interfere in the affairs of men? This question we have already considered in a former chapter, and we have arrived at the conclusion that if we free ourselves from the trammels of _à priori_ theories, and judge only by the facts of the universe as it exists, neither their existence nor their intervention in human affairs is contrary to our reason.

Two things, however, must be steadily kept in mind. First: that if such interventions in human affairs are facts, the agency which can be exerted is only a permitted agency, and only capable of being exerted in subordination to the divine purposes in the government of the universe. A large number of the difficulties with which the subject is attended have originated in the wholly inaccurate idea that a power is attributed in the New Testament to Satan, of interfering both in the material and the moral universe at his own will and pleasure. This, however, is altogether contrary to the fact. Whatever power is attributed to him is an entirely permitted one, and exercised in subordination to the general purposes of God. Secondly, that although the disorder in the moral world might lead us to suspect the presence of an evil agency, different from that of man; yet as it is not a visible one, but confined to the regions of the mind, it is one which cannot come under our distinct observation, and could therefore only become known to us by revelation.

One more difficulty has to be considered. It is alleged that possession never takes place now. It is therefore inferred that it never took place at all.

I reply first, if we grant that demoniacal action, in the form of possession has now ceased, it by no means follows that it was not once real. The objection overlooks the fact that its action was a permitted one; and could only be exercised within the limits assigned to it. There may have been reasons at the time of the Advent why the exercise of a Satanic agency should be permitted at that particular period to a greater extent than it ever has been before or since.

Secondly: certain moral and physical conditions were necessary for its exercise. These may be no longer in existence, but they may have passed away with many other abnormal conditions of human nature which existed in the ancient world.

Thirdly: it is not possible to affirm with certainty that, even at the present day, no supernatural agencies bearing an analogy to possession, are exerted on the mind. This will be only possible, when all those abnormal phenomena which manifest themselves in connection with various debased forms of religion and other cases of phrenzied excitement can be traced to known forces, originating solely in the mind itself.

There is one further objection which requires a brief consideration. It is urged that the writers of the New Testament entertained the belief, that diseases were generally occasioned by demoniacal action, quite independently of possession; and that this belief has received the sanction of our Lord. One case only is alleged in proof of this, that of the woman with the spirit of infirmity. She was no demoniac, but an ordinary diseased person, and the disease is asserted to have been occasioned by demoniacal action.

I reply, that considering the large number of diseases of various kinds mentioned in the New Testament, in none of which is there any allusion to demoniacal agency as their cause, a single example is a narrow foundation on which to build the affirmation that the followers of our Lord held such a theory as to the origin of disease in general. I admit that disorganization of the bodily functions is mentioned among the phenomena of possession. But this differs widely from a bodily evil superinduced without the agency of possession. Let us inquire whether the special instance affords any justification for this wide assertion.

The Evangelist states that the woman was bowed down by a spirit of infirmity, and could in no wise lift herself up. Here it is just as absurd to fasten on him the intention to describe a scientific fact, as when on another occasion it is said that “_power_” went out of our Lord “and healed them all.” The one stands on the same ground as the other.

In effecting the cure, our Lord uses the words, “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.” Here there is no reference to Satanic agency whatever. The only mention of it occurs in his argument with the ruler of the synagogue on the lawfulness of effecting such cures on the Sabbath day. The words are, “Thou hypocrite, ought not this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

These words are addressed to the ruler in answer to the objection that our Lord was no prophet, because he effected his cures on the Sabbath. If so, as the reality of the miracle was not denied, it was intended to be implied that it had been wrought by the power of Satan, of which the violation of the Sabbath was the proof. The real point of controversy therefore was the lawfulness of effecting cures on this day, not the Satanic origin of the complaint. Was there any conceivable reason why our Lord should not discuss the point with the ruler on his own principles? Why was it necessary to raise a wholly different issue, viz. the Satanic or non‐Satanic origin of the disease, instead of confining it strictly to the point, which was the all‐important one, that His curing this woman on the Sabbath day was so far from being a proof that He did not come from God, that it was a strong reason for believing that He did so? To have entered on a discussion as to what was the cause of the complaint, would not only have diverted attention from the real question, but would have introduced one wholly foreign to the purposes of His divine mission.

Two suppositions only are possible respecting possession. It must have been either a form of madness produced by natural causes, or a manifestation of superhuman power. As the facts on which a judgment can be formed are meagre, I have not ventured to determine which of these two theories is alone consistent with the facts and phenomena of the New Testament. I have therefore taken either alternative, and shown, that neither does the theory that it was mania interfere with the claims of the Gospels to be accepted as historical documents, nor is the language attributed to our Lord contrary to the truthfulness of His character; nor does the supposition that it was due to superhuman causes contradict the established truths of mental science.