ABSTRACT
ARTIFICIAL AND VOLUNTARY POSSESSION AMONGST PRIMITIVE PEOPLES. SO-CALLED
SHAMANISM
A general survey of the whole body of known cases of pos session shows that, in addition to the two principal forms, som nambulistic and lucid, it falls into other important divisions, since, while many cases are characterized by extraordinary excitement and even fury, others are comparatively quiet. The first have made by far the more stir, and we too have given them our principal attention. But they are not the only ones; there are also more tranquil states, several of which we have learnt to know, and which are also rightly styled “ possession,” inasmuch as to the casual and unscientific observer they seem to consist in the domination of the individual by a strange, intruding soul. This soul is either that of a demon, of a dead (or quite exceptionally a living) man, or in some cases of a beast.
