Spirit Possession

With the increasingly widespread manifestations of spirit possession EPS will be presenting a series of articles on the topic taken from the book Spirit Possession by Dr. T. E. Wade M.D. Dr. Wade's goal is to help us identify the mechanisms by which possession - by divine and by satanic forces - is accomplished. Dr. Wade begins by examining how the mind functions; he then turns to the phenomena of hypnosis and then he looks at the similarities between hypnosis, demon possession, transcendental meditation, and certain church experiences.
Editor.

Awareness

Awareness is consciousness of conditions, persons, or ideas. Awareness may be genuine or distorted. It may be real or fictitious. It may be vague or vivid. By hypnotic suggestion awareness may be induced, altered, or obliterated. Because awareness and hence discrimination are profoundly affected by the hypnotic trance, the phenomenon is of great interest to the person who feels accountable to God. How awareness might be distorted is intriguing. Perhaps interference with some kind of selective switching mechanism in the brain produces hypnotic suggestion and spirit possession. Fatigue of such a mechanism might explain hysteria. And indeed, study of the brain reveals junctions with selective switching capacity at every point where nerve cells communicate or contact each other. Discussing the brain's function in more detail will make it easier to visualize what might happen to influence awareness.

The brain at work

Mystery surrounds the very nature of the thought process. However, we do have a few clues. In the brain's superficial gray layer, or cortex, are billions of interconnecting nerve cells called neurons. Each neuron has connections or synapses permitting it to receive electrochemical signals from hundreds of other neurons. In addition, it can transmit signals to one another or to many other neurons. The neuron does not forward every signal but in some way controls which signals sent on and which cells should receive them. A neuron acts within a thousandth of a second either passing on or blocking a particular signal. The receiving cell may be adjacent or at a considerable distance from the sending cell. Waves or streamlets of electrochemical activity flow through the cortical substance more or less constantly. The wave front may affect hundreds of nerve cells at one time, and may flow through a million of them within one second. Dozens of these waves or streamlets are flowing simultaneously, intersecting each other. At any moment in time, some spots in the brain cortex are electrochemically active while others are quiescent. This complex interplay is probably the basis of mental activity. Some have compared the brain to a gigantic computer.

Mental concentration

The mind can give keen attention to only one thing at a time. To avoid confusion it is equipped to eliminate, suppress or relegate to a subconscious level, everything else. Distortion and exaggeration of this function may explain the abnormal awareness of hypnosis, to be discussed in a later chapter. For those who care to know, we will mention the mechanism which apparently makes mental concentration possible. Then we will illustrate normal awareness by citing two examples.

Control center

We have described the action of the individual neuron which resembles a minute electronic relay with discriminating ability. In addition, a specialized area of the brain has been identified which seems to have the purpose of arousing and alerting the cerebral cortex. Evidently it sorts and evaluates incoming signals according to significance and controls the flow from one brain area to another. This control center, called the reticular formation, is about the size of a little finger and located in the brain stem. Our awareness of the world and our ability to think, to learn, and to act depend on it. Without it an individual would be unconscious and paralyzed. Thinking, perception and intelligent response to stimulus, center in the cortex of the brain. To function, the cortex must be aroused.

In other words, "Concentration, reality testing, and simple survival require the exercise of scanning and screening mechanisms to keep the searchlight of awareness focused on selected areas of psychic content and to keep everything else out of awareness."(1)

This reticular activating system (or RAS) "awakens the brain to consciousness and keeps it alert; it directs the traffic of messages in the nervous system; it monitors the myriads stimuli that beat upon our senses, accepting what we need to perceive and rejecting what is irrelevant; it tempers and refines our muscular activity and bodily movements. We can go even further and say that it contributes in an important way to the highest mental processes - the focusing of attention, introspection and doubtless all forms of reasoning."(2)

"In short, the RAS acts as a kind of traffic control center facilitating the flow of signals in the nervous system."(3)

The vast majority of signals sent to the brain from all over the body are suppressed. For instance, no person is aware every moment of every part of his skin; but if he happens to sit on a pin he suddenly becomes acutely aware of the signal sent up by the spot which the pin pricks. Even a strong signal will not reach consciousness until the brain is prepared for it. If a person accidentally smashes his finger, he may experience no pain for a moment. Very soon, however, the matter will catch his attention and he will be aware of pain. By contrast, if a knife were held over his finger and slowly pressed down the suffering would be intolerable. Thus we see some of the factors which influence normal awareness.

The complexity of awareness

Awareness is a very complex process. It involves normal senses such as touch and sound as well as the brain's ability to organize and interpret the messages it receives. As an example of the sorting process, let us examine the sense of sight.

The eye resembles a camera. The retina, corresponding to the camera film, contains microscopic light sensitive nerve cells. When a unit of light strikes one of these cells, a chemical change takes place that sends out a signal. Deep in the retina are three successive nerve cell groups through which the signal must pass. Cells in each of these groups either reject the signal or accept it and direct its continuation. From the retina signals are carried by fibers of the optic nerve to the midbrain where they are screened again by the reticular formation before they reach the visual area in the back of the brain. Sight becomes part of awareness as the combined optic signals are compared with information being received from other sensory mechanisms and with that store in the memory. The imagination evaluates the significance of this visual information and its probable effect on the person.

All of this happens in a fraction of a second. The eye receives hundreds of thousands of light units simultaneously. The brain does not sense each of these separately. Rather all the lights and darks, the spots of color and the shapes are combined and compared with information stored from previous experience to produce one composite picture. Thus in a flash one knows whether an object he encounters is a snake or a dog, whether it is his wife or a neighbor. He knows whether she is happy or angry, and he decides whether to be joyful, sad or alarmed. All of this is what we call awareness. And it is far more complex than our imagination can grasp. The point to be noted is that sorting, evaluation and discrimination are involved at every step of the process.

Simulated awareness

Just as the brain can block authentic signals, so it can generate signals that seem to be real. Imagination is the ability to perceive in the mind that which is not present to the senses. A combination of imagination and memory can produce simulated awareness. Thus wherever a person may be, he knows what his house is like inside and out. He can picture how a new chair will affect the decor of the living room. Simulated awareness is normal if the person realizes that it is simulated and unreal.

Psychotic individuals, however, may be unable distinguish between the real world on the outside and imaginary world within their minds. Fantasies are often very real to children. Dreams are products of the imagination which the sleeping person is normally unable to distinguish from reality.

As obvious examples of fictitious awareness, consider the false sensation of light caused by pressing the side of a closed eye, or the constant ringing some people hear when there is no sound. Now suppose a sensation or an idea is inserted into the thought pathway, by suggestion. And suppose this occurs while one's discrimination and evaluation capacity are depressed or obliterated by hypnosis. We can easily see this suggestion or idea might be accepted as reality.

Inability to distinguish between reality and imagination while one is awake we know as hallucination. Positive abnormal awareness (the condition of hallucination) requires input from the imagination, and probably from memory. The imagination becomes aware of these as though they were truly present. Conversely, negative distortion of awareness occurs when legitimate information is blocked. Our ability to concentrate on a chosen topic requires selectively suppressing irrelevant sensory input. But overreaction of this suppressive mechanism can produce distortion by obliterating certain areas of awareness.

Consider, as an example, the devout Hindu who walks on hot coals, or thrusts a large needle through his cheek. By denial of reality he can block his sensory mechanism and thus endure without flinching an experience that most of us would find intolerable.

Awareness is perception of a situation, a state of being, or a presence. Its intensity may vary. Thus awareness may be a vague impression, or it may be so strong that it crowds all else from the mind. Awareness may be focused by being called to a person's attention, or it may be suppressed by diverting the, thoughts. Awareness may be genuinely accurate, or it may be illusionary.

Hypnosis manipulates awareness.

References

1. Louis J West M.D., "Psychophysiology of Hypnosis," Journal of the American Medical Association, Feb. 13, 1960, Vol. 172, p. 672.
Copyright 1960, American Medical Association.

2. J. D. French, Scientific American, May, 1957 States of Awareness, pp. 29ff, 1972 W. H. Freeman & Co., New York.

3. Ibid, p. 29.