Spirit possession
Wikipedia contributors · 2024 · Wikipedia
This source is used as context evidence across 2 linked claims and 4 related evidence hubs. Its citation record is marked verified; that verifies the source trail, not the truth of any linked claim.
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).
How this source is used on the map
Companion to the exorcism entry; gives the broader anthropological / psychiatric framing of the underlying experience.
Citation record
- Authors
- Wikipedia contributors
- Year
- 2024
- Publication
- Wikipedia
- Source type
- Secondary summary
- Map role
- context
- Credibility level
- secondary
- Citation status
- Verified
- DOI
- Not recorded
- PubMed
- Not recorded
- Not recorded
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.
Related sources
Useful background for claims involving God, religious figures, or traditions because it clarifies what counts as a religious claim before evidence is weighed.
Default reference for the demons claim; pair with the existing wiki-devil entry for the personalised cosmic adversary.
Useful for showing that devil claims vary sharply across traditions, so the evidence question has to specify which version of the concept is being evaluated.
Direct evidence for the harm-risk side of the magic / witchcraft claim; cited routinely in the historical-harm bullet.
Default reference for the exorcism claim; covers the practice variants and the well-documented harm cases.