Mozambique is being ravaged by an epidemic of spirit possession. These ‘outbreaks’ have traditionally been dismissed as superstition by commentators from afar, but it is becoming increasingly recognised that different cultures have different ways of expressing mental distress and social anguish – to the point where a team of medical scientists have just published the first large scale epidemiological study on spirit possession and its link to mental and physical illness in post-civil war Mozambique.
In this form of possession, the person feels as if their normal identity has been ‘pushed aside’ by a ‘spirit’, who takes control of their body and typically communicates with other people. After the possession episode, the person usually has amnesia for the episode.
In Western medicine, this is usually understood through a psychological process called dissociation – where normally integrated mental processes become disconnected. It’s like the psychological equivalent of when two teams in a company can’t communicate very well, so they start operating independently rather than as an integrated organisation.
In many societies around the world the concept of spirit possession plays an important role in understanding and explaining both the forces of nature and the psychology of individuals, to the point where it has both positive and negative effects.
Ethnographic studies have found that, during possession, ‘spirits’ may offer opinions or solutions to moral crises and may protect the individual from trauma and despair during times of violence.
However, negative possession states can causes problems or illnesses that are thought to be triggered by the harmful spirits, which can include anything from fertility problems, to family break-up, to physical aches and pains.
As times change, new spirits appear and old ones fade, each having different effects, benefits or risks. One legacy of the Mozambique war was the emergence of a new type of spirit that had a particular interest in the personal and social legacy of the conflict.
In the late twentieth century, as a result of the Mozambican protracted civil war, gamba spirits emerged. They became the principal harmful spirits and source of diagnosis. Gamba refers to the spirit of male soldiers who died in the war. Possession by gamba is a trauma of a double derivation. First, the host and patrikin [family on the father’s side] were severely exposed to warfare that led to vulnerability; and, second, to address that war-related vulnerability, the host’s patrikin were alleged to have perpetrated serious wrongdoings.
The person possessed by a gamba spirit publicly re-enacts the events of war, sometimes violently, and through the possessed person, the spirit demands public acknowledgement of the injustices they suffered. Spirits who are not appeased continue to torment the possessed person to the point of serious illness.
The study, led by medical anthropologist Victor Igreja and published in Social Science and Medicine, surveyed the extent of possession in two districts in central Mozambique and see how it was linked to trauma and physical health.
They used local criteria for the definition of spirit possession and validated interviews to assess trauma – such as the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire – developed to be used across cultures.
Households were selected at random, and out of 941 people evaluated, 175 (18.6%) reported some form of spirit possession while 5.6% had experienced multiple simultaneous spirit possession.
People who had been possessed were more likely to be women and have symptoms of physical illness but less likely to have had a baby. Those who went into trances as part of their possession were more likely to be experiencing psychological trauma, have fertility problems, have had a child die during their life and to suffer nightmares
One particularly striking finding was that the severity of psychological and physical symptoms was directly related to the number of spirits that a person had been possessed by, with more serious problems being associated with greater numbers of intruding spirits.
While the effects of spirit possession can be seen to have some relation to the Western diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or anxiety, there are also many distinct features that reflect a more local concept of how a distressed person can express their mental anguish.
For people familiar with diagnoses drawn from the DSM and World Health Organisation ICD system, it is tempting to think that established descriptions are the ‘real’ disorders while cases of spirit possession are simply a local interpretation of them.
What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that both our personal experience of psychological distress and how we express that to others, is shaped by our culture. In other words, diagnoses such as PTSD may be as much wedded to a particular culture as spirit possession.
Sadly, this new study is locked behind a pay-wall, but if you have access to the full thing I recommend giving it a read through as it is a curious combination of traditional statistical epidemiology applied to the ‘diagnosis’ of possession.
The paper demonstrates that spirit possession can be studied scientifically and makes as much sense as studying any other psychiatric problem that is defined by unusual or unhelpful behaviour, such as schizophrenia or panic disorder.
Link to PubMed entry for study.
Link to DOI entry for study.
Mind Hacks 
Something to keep in mind, though: they are not _actually_ being possessed by spirits.
YES, they are possessed by evil spirits. Stop with the wearisome “modern mindset” mentality.
I don’t think that these people are actually possessed. While I am a practicing Catholic, when it comes to possession, the Church goes through a rigorous study of the person to see if the problem is not just psychological. An exorcist won’t typically see someone unless they are recommended to do so by a psychiatrist or some other professional. It seems that the atrocities that these people have to deal with every day are taking a horrible toll on their minds and bodies.
I believe these may be a demonic phenomena. The evil spirit does mimic and instrumentalize psychological illness. For example, demons can “block” memories or imaginations so that a person psychologically “dissociates”, but it would be an error to leave it as simply a “normal” dissociation, for dissociations usually are caused or at least associated with trauma, which the human psyche “blocks” off as “unthinkable” because the mere thought of the memory or image is too terrible to be tolerated. Therefore, you can distinguish demonic dissociation and merely human dissociation, because the former is not necessarily trauma-induced. Moreover, in the evil and violence of the inhuman civil wars, people are exposed to situations where “doors” are opened so that the evil spirit can enter their lives and cause harm to them and to others. It is tragic that many lack the faith and common sense to see that evil spirits do exist and are actually causing much harm.
By the way, there are at least 3 different levels of demonic influence: that of temptation (from outside the body, to which everyone is subject), that of oppression (from within the body partially under its control), and that of possession (full control of the body by the possessing entity, at least for periods of time). In all cases, the enemy wants to disguise itself behind human pathologies or whatever camouflage so as to escape detection and be free to do as it will.
I respectfully believe that this is not a cultural matter but a spiritual matter. And if it is less obvious here in the West, where we like to consider ourselves “civilized”, that is because the demon knows to be more refined among those that takes themselves as such.
DG
well said…i firmly agree.
PLEASE don’t get a godless nazi & soviet gulag psychology (now mainsteam in APA over Faith in Judaism and in Christ) convince you that many of these cases aren’t REAL cases of obsession or possession. A Ugandan seminary prof friend tells me he regularly exorcises his new converts so the damned souls of their ancestors don’t try to pull them down. Witchcraft and other occultism is rampant in Africa and is a major part of religious belief there. My experience is 95% of US priests are so negative to the mention of exorcism, sadly, as to be in heresy; they preferring the training by APA psychologists over reality and truth and the gospel and ridicule without mercy anyone who even mentions the subject. Shame on them. With the explosion of wicca, new age, and other occultisms, and the removal of exorcism from Catholic Baptism, I expect we’ll get some viscious and very real cases of full-blown possession in USA — perhaps one manifestation is serial killers and rapists. There are few properly trained exorcists here. The mom of VA Tech shooter tried in vain for years to get a real exorcism for her son before his mass murder. When you deny the Gospel, the Christ you end up is a redefined imitation; the real JESUS CAST OUT REAL DEMONS REGULARLY.
Articles such as this one has the effect of encouraging the reader to disbelieve any instances of demonic activity. This is a tragic mistake. Folks, demons are real, and possession, as well as other forms of demonic activity, is real.
This is not rocket science. This is demonic possession. Satan’s greatest lie is to let us think that he does not exist. Prayers, deliverance and exorcism are needed no matter what anyone thinks.
Any occult practice opens the door to the realm of the evil spirits. To deny the possibility of possession is to deny the Gospel.
Spirit possesion is VERY SERIOUS, and unless a priest or even a lay person is not trained properly, very dangerous happenings can and have occurred. It is not surprising to me that spirit possesion has occurred in South Africa, where witchcraft plays a very important role in many lives there. What does surprise me,is that you don’t hear of it often in the states.
To all the above comments:
People like you are the reason why innocent people are tortured and broken.
Because you were so easily tricked into believing these lies of possession, you let evil men get away with “curing” people who need REAL help.
Do you believe in witches too? And I suppose you support their torture as well? You’re monsters and you can’t even see it.