Spirit possession
Wikipedia contributors · 2024 · Wikipedia
Summary
Cross-cultural reference on spirit-possession beliefs and trance states, including the mainstream psychiatric framing (dissociative trance disorder, conversion disorder) and the cross-tradition variants (Vodou, Candomblé, Pentecostal manifestations, deliverance ministries).
Why it matters here
Companion to the exorcism entry; gives the broader anthropological / psychiatric framing of the underlying experience.
Linked claims
Cross-tradition belief with no direct evidence. Possession, oppression and 'demonic attack' phenomena map cleanly onto sleep paralysis, dissociation, psychosis, and post-traumatic states.
Possession states are real and widely reported. Standard psychiatry maps them onto dissociative, psychotic, and culturally-shaped trance phenomena; modern exorcism deaths are well-documented.
Related evidence hubs
Physics-adjacent worldviews — block universe, many-worlds, simulation, free will.
World religions and traditions, scored as systems.
Practice claims — prayer, reiki, chakras, astrology, tarot, manifestation.
Reiki, chakras, auras, crystals, prayer healing.