Spirit Possession: Modes and Function

The research project is concerned with the phenomenon of spirit possession and its functionality. It focuses on practitioners of ritual possession in the South West Dominican Republic. The objects of study are 1) the detailed structure (image, sound and language, especially taking into account interaction) of possession 2) the inner feelings of the actors during possession and 3) the functionality of possession. In this vein the project aims at a micro analytic study of interactions related to spirit possession. Conclusions regarding possible functions of spirit possession shall be drawn through typing as well as comparing and contrasting cases and are to be evaluated quantitatively by the means of a subsequent standardized questionnaire survey. Based on material collected during preceding research periods the project springs from the following hypotheses: Depending on the practitioner`s level of experience and his/her rank there are relevant differences concerning the performance and the inner experience of possession. Intensity, duration and script of possession are greatly influenced by the expectation and resonance of ritual partakers and assistants. Music, dance, touch, scents and bell tolling act upon the possessed person in a stimulating or calming way. In the course of a month- to year-long process of ritual initiation the primarily uncontrolled and unspecific possession behaviour is socialized and moulded into the concepts and needs of the community. This training of cultural content is mainly carried out bodily and only in the second place through language and cognition. Since pilot studies suggest that conduct changes during possession and thus may contain different states of performative expression, empathic care or organisational tasks, the term "trance", usually applied to describe states of possession, is not exact enough. Interpreting possession as epileptic strokes or psychoses as proposed in part of the older research findings meets the phenomenon even less as it ignores, on the one hand, the embodied cultural knowledge possession is based upon, and on the other hand, its functionality concerning the satisfaction of psychosocial needs. The methodological approach is based on the Grounded Theory according to Glaser and Strauss. Based on data (video recordings and problem centred interviews) collected during a field stay at the beginning of the project and on the concepts and hypotheses emerging from them, the first project stage focuses on building up a theory inductively. During a later phase further qualitative as well as quantitative field research emphasizes on the actual individual practice. Whereas the qualitative assessment is to be carried out by means of narrative interviews, the quantitative investigation consists of standardized questionnaires based on refined hypotheses resulting from the outset research period and presented to the actors immediately before and after experiencing possession. In order to crosscheck the hypotheses, behaviour will also be encoded in the video recordings. The resulting theoretical model about phenomenology and functionality of ritual possession is expected to contribute to the scientific community with new insight focusing on the areas of embodiment and cognitive science. Theoretical approaches equating cultural expression with illness have to be seen critically. Instead I choose a comprehending approach by conceding. Here I am referring to 33 hours of video recordings resulting from a pilot survey in 2009 and 2010 carried out in cooperation with the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Science (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften).

The project looked at the modes and function of spirit possession in the Dominican Republic, which is ritually practised within the religious framework of Vodou. It studied the performance (I), the development (II), the predictors (III) and the phenomenology (IV) of spirit possession, a temporary state during which individuals feel as if an external force, an ancestor or divinity, exerts a hold over their body. After possession trance (dissociation) they often deny any memory of what they said or did during the possession episode. Many experienced practitioners of possession run their own spiritual centres and offer services, including counselling sessions, carried out in a state of possession. The position as possessed healer provides them with increased autonomy, enhanced possibilities of self-expression, power, status, and economic gains. For a fraction of the individuals, however, possession also functions as an idiom of distress aimed at getting social attention. This means that they feel the spirits are contacting them against their will, and the type of possession they experience is spontaneous and has violent features manifesting in disorganised or aggressive behaviour. The project found that these individuals tend to have experienced stress processes such as domestic violence, loss of caregivers, or discrimination. Moreover, a comparison betwe en possessed and non-possessed Vodouists revealed that in contrast to non-possessed participants (n=38), those experiencing spirit possession (n=47) reported a greater tendency to somatise, more problems with sleep, and previous exposure to mortal danger such as assaults, accidents, or diseases. Among the circumstances that reinforce the experience of a distressing possession are a hostile and stressful social environment, and attempts of folk healers or members of evangelical congregations to ritually cast out the demons. Initiation into the cult of Vodou, on the other hand, may serve as a successful strategy to cope with disturbing dissociative episodes, as it provides the afflicted with an explanatory framework for positive interpretation and an acceptance of their possession states. During the initiation process they repeatedly perform possession under the supervision of experienced possession practitioners, so that former uncontrolled dissociation becomes structured and controllable. In this vein, the project found that whether possession is experienced as functional or distressing depends on biographical experiences, as well as sociocultural variables. The project thus supported a nuanced and culturally sensitive perspective, which took into account that the performance, inner experience and function of possession vary within the same sociocultural setting. The project has implications for the area of cultural psychiatry, as it responded to the relative lack of ethnomedical studies on possession as an idiom of distress.