As a young man I witnessed a person in the situation of being "possessed" by a spirit that even identified himself. This is a serious issue to me as it was as real as me typing this now. I read a recent post about all things being spiritually created first, but lately I have been doubthing all about spitual entities or world or even people. How can I explain what I saw? Also, it doesn't make sense that spirits would wear any clothing... why? clothing is not part of the body... how to make a robe... I mean a spiritual robe? Well, here you go, just my questions.

You are right, nobody else commented on my question...

Observer... I have posted elsewhere (and been criticized for offering it) that there is a site called rcauldron.com which is somewhat New Agey/Ancient Eastern thought (if you like that sort of thing, which I tend towards) but you may find people there who are more interested in that subject matter.

This board is specifically for ExMormon support and for many that very much means leaving any thought of spirituality or religion, and it can be very disturbing to them, or at least somehow viewed as an affront on logic (which I would call disturbing to them). So then probably you partly got no response, because that was the only obvious response for them.

There was recently a psychic thread on the board which had a number of people posting, but the insults tend to not have those conversations go far.

Sorry about that. But you may find others post today since you posted it late last night.

The group has been somewhat disappointing to me in that way as well because I wanted to have more middle ground conversations. I am learning to navigate it for what it is.

You can email me personally at: pranicunfolding@yahoo.com if you want to discuss it further with me and see how that goes.

I won't "meet you with aggression" about it. There are things that I experienced when younger that seemed to be evidence of spirits as well, though I think I've found explanations of them since then. (For example, a couple of times I woke up in the morning but couldn't move, and was terrified...and had to keep mentally "pushing" until I was able to make part of my body move, and then suddenly I was free again. I swore I was being held down by something, but later discovered sleep paralysis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

Apparently in some cultures that have stories of demons sitting on people, some have died of fright from this. When it happened to me, I was really scared, but since I hadn't heard of it before I was able to wait until I found out what it was. Since I figured it out, I've had at least one instance of it happening again, and wasn't scared at all.



In the case of your possession, I think it's probably a case of mental illness. Especially if that person had heard about possession from someone else, then if they are having trouble thinking clearly, it's possible for some part of their mind to seize on "a demon" as an explanation.

I have PTSD and one evening I was wide awake lying down reading I suddenly became aware that I was having a very bizzare dream (or possibly a flashback). What scared me I was wide awake.
My shrink said when a person has been thru a lot of stress for a long time (and I have until just recently) that the neurological connections in the brain can go astray and manifest themselves as bizarre occurances that many attribute to Satan or his demons. Oh he is bad alright but sometimes there is a logical explanation. Pass it please. Wendy

The idea of seeing ghosts and ghost hunters is very popular right now even with a show on TV. I don't know what all their evidence of lights and clicks and voices is all about, but it's fun entertainment.
Ghosts and spirits are always going to be part of the landscape, so to speak, and to my knowledge, their manifestation is in clothing.
I was raised in Spiritualism so I have dozens of storied!

Was the experience part of religion? Your description immediately made me think of the possession that happens during Vodoun rituals where there is intentional desire to pull spirits into the body (and yes, some are named). I specifically remember a film by Maya Deren that I watched in one of my university classes, which specficially dealt with religious possession.

It's something that doesn't make sense to me, and I question whether it's real or not - but to the practitioners of the faith, it's unquestionably real. As someone not of the faith, the images I saw in Deren's film were disturbing if not terrifying to me. I can't explain them either - what my brain tells me is "real" vs. what I saw in that film doesn't mix correctly.

It's definitely unsettling.

Alright, if we are going to discuss this here... :)

Voodoo groups will consciously have people get possessed by a 'God', and they talk about how the 'Gods' each have their own personality. There are youtube videos if you want to look further at that and see if that is similar.

Sometimes in Hinduism that is done as well and people in both religions will do things like pierce their bodies while in a trance and not bleed. All that stuff can both fascinate me and disturb me.

That said, often I think it can be a manifestation of the psyche. (In some cases I am not sure what to believe).

Shamans of various cultures around the world also will go into trances to have their bodies possessed by a spirit which will then according to their teachings offer people various healings and blessings.

I have been around groups where they say someone is 'channeling'. Some of the concepts discussed have been interesting. Some have seemed mainly like mumbo jumbo and the delusions of people.

There is a lot out there that I don't know what to believe about and some things I like to speculate on.

I could go in more depth, but I get criticized for long posts in the group. So will leave it at that for now.

In my mind there are several explanations for your experience that are more likely than an actual possession. To me the reasons it is unlikely is more important that the alternative explanations:

1) There is no rhyme or reason to when/how possessions take place. There is no predictive way to know when/why/how something like this will occur.

2) There are so many eye-witness accounts to supernatural things that clearly have never taken place. Any time one of these things is seriously followed up on all credible evidence disappears.

3) There are too many counter examples. One person's experience with a possession often contradicts another's. There is no reliable consistent pattern of what happens to indicate that this is a phenomenon that really exists.

In other words, there is no answer to why a possession really took place in that case but does not in other cases. It needs to be repeatable before it is credible.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2012 01:13PM by bc.

Spirit Possession in Voodoo and other things is repeatable, but not necessarily measurable. People in voodoo will get together and dance to drums, and people will get possessed by the 'Gods'. It is part of their ritual practices.

One can go on youtube and find video of such occurrences. Probably further if one looks up 'possessed by the gods'.

Possession is sticky though as a subject, and I wonder if it is something like 'acting' or letting an 'unconscious part of the mind' take over.

There are desired possessions (like in Voodoo, Shamanism or Hinduism) and then there are undesired forms of possession (like when people talk about demon possession). But then of course are the Christian groups over the generations who have asserted that people who don't do what they want are 'possessed'.