Possession, demonic

This animal is evidence. Brother. It is possessed by a spirit, whether demon or not I cannot tell. And you may assign me a penance if I am deceiving you. ... 

Early in human history a natural bond formed between religion and the use of drugs. Those who became most proficient in the use of drugs to treat disease were the mediators between this world and the spirit world, namely, the priests, shamans, holy persons, witches, and soothsayers. Much of their power within the community was derived from the cures that they could effect with drugs. It was believed that the sick were possessed by demons and that health could be restored by identifying the demon and finding a way to cast it out. 

In Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs, mental illnesses were a result of the wrath of gods, or even an expression of possession by demons. In agreement... 

Even worse than these demonic transformations of the outer world, were the alterations that I perceived in myself, in my inner being. Every exertion of my will, every attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the outer world and the dissolution of my ego, seemed to be wasted effort. A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind, and soul. I jumped up and screamed, trying to free myself from him, but then sank down again and lay helpless on the sofa. The substance, with which I had wanted to experiment, had vanquished me. It was the demon that scornfully triumphed over my will. I was seized by the dreadful fear of going insane. LSD My Problem Child, p. 17)... 

Hofmann has now clearly moved into demonic possession country With the dissolution of his will, his essential self has been split and a part of him replaced by an external agent, the demonic drug—shades of the devil that was thought to corrupt us by temptation shades of the succu-bus that seduced men shades of the incubus that seduced women in their sleep and shades of the alien invaders that spirit some modern men and women away to other planets for bizarre rituals or unwelcome surgical interventions without their bed partners even noticing their absence. Indeed, Hofmann himself believed that he was outside his body as he reached the climax of his psychosis. This is dissociation with a vengeance ... 

I still had no idea what was going on I just knew that I could not approve of anything that a demon enjoyed so much. No doubt there are possessed walking the streets of Christendom, too, even here in the Republic. I was identifying this one and his rider only because I was seeing them through Putrid s eyes. 

Why should that bother a demon Surely the fiend that possessed Karagounis could have prevented him from giving away any secrets It would have enjoyed his agonies. ... 

Of course it did. It might also suggest that the Maestro thought the murderer was possessed. Karagounis might have died to save another demon from exposure and eviction. Mentioning that theory would land me in even worse trouble. 

The demon in the illusion had claimed that Tirali was possessed, but what demons say must never be trusted. They can turn around and speak the truth to deceive, though, and Tirali s bribe to me had come at a very convenient moment. He had known that the poisoning must have happened in this room, he had known about the attack on me, even that thebravi had used knives and not swords. He had known I would be coming to call on him. Had the doge really revealed all that to a man who had been present at the scene of the crime Surely Pietro Moro would not be so indiscreet ... 

Naden left Mason College in 1887, but unfortunately died in 1889, as her obituarist described "... after coming into the possession of a considerable fortune, she travelled throughout the Middle-East and South Asia. She contracted Indian demon-fever never completely recovered. During the last year, she lectured at Dartford on Women s Suffrage. 94(a) A bust of Naden overlooks the archives room of the University of Birmingham. 

No demon-wielder,clarissimo. A damned soul, fallen into the clutches of the Evil One. There is a procedure.. .Ido not contemplate black magic. Your Excellencies, but of invoking certain elementals, spirits that are morally neutral, neither good nor evil. Fire elementals are particularly attuned to demons, understandably, but are not in themselves damned, because fire is one of God s boons to mankind. Fire can purify or it can destroy. Certain ancient authorities list some obscure procedures to elicit the aid of these spirits. I believe it would be possible to call on them to identify the possessed person or persons. ... 

I didn t use it in front of Gritti himself, but I agree it was stupid. After all, how much worse could demonic possession make Vasco And he might have bitten the jinx, instead of the other way around. ... 

Treatment of thionhydrazides, RC(==S)—NH—NH2 with nitrous acid should lead to thiocarbonyl azides, RC(=S)—N3, and it seems likely that these azides are indeed formed as short-lived intermediates. The isolated products are 1,2,3,4-thiatriazoles. When thiosemi-carbazides are nitrosated, 5-amino-l,2,3,4-thiatriazoles or/and 5-mercaptotetrazoles are obtained. Freundformulated his products as such in 1895, while Oliveri-Mandala considered them thiocarbamoyl azides on the basis of some chemical evidence. Lieber resolved this controversy by recording the infrared spectra of the compounds and demonstrating the absence of an azide band . He did the same for the 5-alkylmercapto-l,2,3,4-thiatriazoles , which had earlier been reported as azido-dithiocarbonates , and for the products from azide ion and thiophosgene and carbon disulphide , all of which possess thiatriazole structures. Lieber also demon-... 

According to the old Anglo-Saxon herbal guides. Mandrake is endowed with power against demonic possession. In the Herbarium ofApuleius there is a Mandrake prescription For witlessness, that is devil sickness or demoniacal possession, take from the body of this said wort mandrake by the weight of three pennies, administer to drink in warm water as he may find most convenient -soon he will be healed. ... 

Cultural beliefs may define the interpretation of arousal experienced by a group. In several episodes of mass hysteria in Singapore factories, Malay females showed symptoms they attributed to possession by jin, or spirits (Chew et al. 1976 Phoon 1982). Treatment of these cases often required help from a bomoh, or medicine man, believed by the women to rule demons and exorcise spirits (Chew 1978). 

---