ABSTRACT
In certain rural districts in Japan a surprising number of ailments and afflictions are still laid at the door of evil spiritual powers. The cure for these conditions does not lie within the province of medi-cine. No materia medica, whether western or Chinese, no hospital treatment, no doctors can possibly reach the root of the trouble. For this lies, not in bacteria, nor in physiological imbalances, but in demoniacal possession. Certain malignant spiritual entities are believed to enter into the human body, take up their abode there, and by their consequent possession to cause a displacement of the normal bodily functions so great sometimes as to affect the entire personality.
