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​Institute of Mind and Behavior - Search "Mark Crooks" -  click here to read PDF File 

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Vol. 39, Number 4, Autumn 2018 (Special Issue)
On the Psychology of Demon Possession: The Occult Personality 

On the Psychology of Demon Possession:
The Occult Personality, page 257
By Mark Crooks

​Published with permission from Editor of the JMB Journal Autumn 2018

The notions of possession within psychiatry, psychology, anthropology, parapsychology, and demonology are evaluated as to their relative de/merits. The sheer quantity of evidence as to the phenomenology (descriptive facts) of possession means it transcends any dismissal as anecdotal in kind (e.g., the academically archetypal Biblical possession case involving the swine stampede — a so-called “poltergeist,” here redefined as pan-demon-ium — following the expulsion of the Legion demons). Copious empirical data concerning possession are the same for all contending interpretations, so the prime question is which interpretation has the simplest, most comprehensive explanatory hypothesis. There is a great logical and empirical rigor that may be attached to the traditional conception of demonology. A stereotyped antithesis between science and superstition is suggestive but an alternative, actual dichotomy obtains between good and better hypotheses, which map the same evidential field of facts shared by Biblical demonology and its competing interpretations of possession.

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The Clinical Characteristics of Possession Disorder Among 20 Chinese Patients in the Hebei Province of China

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• March 1998

• Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) 49(3):360-5 DOI:10.1176/ps.49.3.360

• Source - PubMed

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This paper describes the clinical characteristics of 20 hospitalized psychiatric patients in the Hebei province of China who believed they were possessed. A structured interview focused on clinical characteristics associated with possession phenomena was developed and administered to 20 patients at eight hospitals in the province. All patients had been given the Chinese diagnosis of yi-ping (hysteria) by Chinese physicians before being recruited for the study. The subjects' mean age was 37 years. Most were women from rural areas with little education. Major events reported to precede possession included interpersonal conflicts, subjectively meaningful circumstances, illness, and death of an individual or dreaming of a deceased individual. Possessing agents were thought to be spirits of deceased individuals, deities, animals, and devils. Twenty percent of subjects reported multiple possessions. The initial experience of possession typically came on acutely and often became a chronic relapsing illness. Almost all subjects manifested the two symptoms of loss of control over their actions and acting differently. They frequently showed loss of awareness of surroundings, loss of personal identity, inability to distinguish reality from fantasy, change in tone of voice, and loss of perceived sensitivity to pain. Preliminary findings indicate that the disorder is a syndrome with distinct clinical characteristics that adheres most closely to the DSM-IV diagnosis of dissociative trance disorder under the category of dissociative disorder not otherwise specified.​

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Hallucinations Explained

NEUROSCIENCE & NEUROLOGY
Can We Explain Hallucinations?
by Viatcheslav Wlassoff, PhD | February 2, 2016

Hallucination, what is it? Free wandering of the mind, the ability to see parallel universes, a soul’s flight through a continuum of variants, or just a brain malfunction? Is it a disease or a normal physiological reaction to a specific stimulus or set of stimuli?  Science defines hallucination as a sensory experience of something that does not exist outside the mind. Hallucinations can affect any senses (vision, hearing, smell, taste, and tactile feelings) and bodily sensations.  We think of hallucinations as something rare, but recent studies have shown that about 40% of people reported hallucinating at least once in their life, and about 7% reported them at least once a month, about 3% – once a week, and 2.4% – more than once a week.  These numbers, more likely, are still underestimated because people are thinking of hallucinations as a bad thing and associate them with being mentally ill, so do not admit experiencing them. Just a single example: do you ever experience the sensation of crawling insects over your whole body after finding a tick on your dog? Do you count this as hallucinating? Apparently, you should.

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Demonic Possession is Real

When exorcists need help, they call him
By John Blake, CNN
Published 12:23 AM EDT, Fri August 4, 2017

A small group of nuns and priests met the woman in the chapel of a house one June evening. Though it was warm outside, a palpable chill settled over the room.As the priests began to pray, the woman slipped into a trance – and then snapped to life. She spoke in multiple voices: One was deep, guttural and masculine; another was high-pitched; a third spouted only Latin. When someone secretly sprinkled ordinary water on her, she didn’t react. But when holy water was used, she screamed in pain.“Leave her alone, you f***ing priests,” the guttural voice shouted. “Stop, you whores. … You’ll be sorry.”You’ve probably seen this before: a soul corrupted by Satan, a priest waving a crucifix at a snarling woman. Movies and books have mimicked exorcisms so often, they’ve become clichés.

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