Possession: A Form of Shamanism?

Possession and Shamanism

It is widely known that there was a wave of affairs of possession in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The most famous one was the case of Loudun in France (1632–34). Could we say that this wave of possession phenomena was a form of shamanism?

Michel Perrin, a French specialist on shamanism, thinks that possession and shamanism are completely different even though they have something in common. He insists on the necessity of making a comparative study of possession and shamanism globally as a religious and therapeutic system.¹ According to Perrin, both possession and shamanism are ways of communicating with another world. But, in shamanic communication, the shaman is voluntarily active, and it is he who controls the communication with the other world. On the other hand, in a state of possession, a possessed person is essentially passive. He is at the mercy of the authoritative power of another world and his personality disappears at the time of the irruption of the divinity or spirit that possesses him. There is another difference. In traditional societies, generally, shamanism is the only way of considering an alliance with another world and of dealing with adversity. However, possession coexists with other systems like exorcism, and with officiators of cults of possession, other practitioners, and specialists in other adversities.

Perrin presents further definitions of the difference between shamanism and possession, referring to definitions of other researchers. According to Luc de Heusch (1971), in shamanism, the shaman deliberately seeks to enter into a trance, whereas in possession, the gods come down to the person who is possessed. In other words, shamanism is an “ascensual metaphysic” in which man sees himself as the equal of the gods, whereas possession is an incarnation. The shaman captures the soul that has been stolen whereas the divinity possesses the body of the possessed. G. Rouget (1980), an ethnomusicologist, distinguishes between shamanism and possession by means of music. The shaman creates music or a song differently every time, whereas the possessed always receives the same music.²

Shamanism, Possession, and Ecstasy

Koukan Sasaki, Japanese specialist in shamanism, thinks that the most important characteristic of shamanism is direct contact with the supernatural. According to Sasaki, definitions of shamanism are as numerous as researchers. His own definition is that “shamanism is normally the magical and religious form which is concentrated in the person (shaman) who establishes a direct contact or communication with the supernatural (the god, the spirits, the dead . . .), and in this process, plays the role of the prophet, oracle, diviner, and of the healer in the states of altered consciousness like a trance.”³ Unlike Michel Perrin, Sasaki thinks that possession is an aspect of shamanism. According to him, there are two ways of having a direct contact with the supernatural during the trance. One is possession and the other is ectasy.

Mircea Eliade thinks that ecstasy is essential and possession is secondary. He defines shamanism as a “technique of ecstasy.”⁴ According to him, possession does not necessarily belong to shamanism in the strict sense. For I. M. Lewis, on the other hand, possession is essential. He includes both possession and shamanism in the category of “ecstatic religion.”⁵ But unlike Sasaki, Lewis does not differentiate between ecstasy and possession. For Lewis, possession is an ecstatic religion.

Shamanism and Cosmology

According to Sasaki, the role of the shaman is related to the maintenance of the cosmology of the society. There is a correspondence between the forms of shamanism and cosmology. Making a comparative study of this correspondence, he says, in shamanistic ecstasy, the idea of a spirit which leaves the body and the idea of another world where the dead and the spirits live are clear, and what is more, there is a conception of several spirits in the body of a human being, as in the shamanism of Siberia, whereas there is only one spirit in the body of a human being in shamanistic possession. In Japan, where shamanistic possession is dominant, there is the conception of only one spirit in...