Possession
During the middle ages, the Black Plague was believed to be caused by demonic possession. The ‘cure,’ (exorcism), although logically related, was, as is known today, no cure at all. It was not until the nineteenth century, when an understanding of microbes as a cause of infection began to filter into scientific awareness that a “real” remedy began to be considered. It was another century that antibiotics came into use.
In modern society, it is generally held that belief in possession is a thing of the past or limited to bizarre cults. Yet a closer look might reveal that the demons are still with us. And, as we all know, demons have an uncanny ability to change form or render themselves invisible while continuing to exert their malevolence.
Alcohol abuse, in contemporary society, is one example of belief in possession. The demons have morphed into terms more socially acceptable to the beliefs of our scientific consciousness. The pattern is clear: The victim is overtaken by agents external to himself. What was referred to, in the past, as “spirits” or “demon rum” is now viewed as a “substance” that takes over the individual and destroys his or her life, or the victim is possessed by a ‘disease’ over which he has no control, or has bad genes that slipped from his parents into his body acting as agents that rob him of his freedom of choice or lead him down a path of continuous destruction. And the solutions follow a logical path: belief systems and rituals designed to gain control over these forces. Elaborate temples erected for retreat from or the exorcism of the demons. Cults, each offering self-esteem, safety and belonging to the victim who would otherwise be an outcast in exchange for his own autonomy and a lifetime attachment to repetitive ritual.
The demons’ work is insidious but most effective. Rituals continue, the victims’ beliefs assure that a ‘real’ cause will never be found condemning him to repeat the cycle often with the belief that he has conquered the demon which subtly changes shape but produces the same effects.
It is only when we experience our own thinking as primitive, like the plague afflicted people of the middle ages, that we will be able to notice the equivalent of “microbes” leading us to discover the “cure.”
One way of understanding the above is to see it as a polemic opposed to present-day alcohol treatment. Another way, however, is to bring into consideration a different way of seeing. In this case directing attention to barriers to understanding as a necessary first step to gaining knowledge of what really needs to be addressed in this and other relams of human endeavor.