DEMONIACAL MANIFESTATIONS. — Given the existence of the devil, the question arises whether, beyond the indirect or moral operations of which he is undoubtedly capable in his work of temptation and incitement to evil, Satan has the power and freedom to intervene, and in fact does intervene, in the order of nature through physical and biological manifestations, including those proper to psychic life.
I. THE FACTS
Now, on this point no reasonable doubt can be admitted, as is shown by several arguments, for example, by historical testimony and by the scientific examination of the facts.Historically, it appears that in every age many phenomena were attributed to the demon, or, in general, to evil spirits. Even allowing a considerable margin for these assertions—that is, attributing a great number of them to ignorance, suggestion, or error—we cannot, however, extend this process indiscriminately to all cases and at all times. For these are attestations not only by uncultivated people, gathered in periods of scientific obscurity, but often, on the contrary, testimonies given by eminent persons, by scientists of renowned standing, including those of our own times. Moreover, it cannot be admitted that an attestation so extensive in time and space should lack any serious foundation, without thereby contradicting the very bases, and the most certain bases, of scientific historical inquiry.
Furthermore, still in the field of history, there is the testimony of Holy Scripture: from the Gospels it appears that Jesus healed many possessed persons, and declared them to be such, clearly distinguishing them from ordinary sick persons (Mc. 1, 23-28; Mt. 8, 28-34; 9, 32-34; 12, 22; 15, 22-28; Lc. 6, 18-19; 7, 21; 9, 37-44; 13, 12-17; etc.). This assertion has immense value: it is irrefragable for Christians, since for them the word of Christ is the very word of God; but it is also absolutely certain for anyone who takes account of the fact that the Gospels constitute a body of authentic documents, whose truth is therefore beyond objection.
The other element of proof arises from the intrinsic, scientifically conducted examination of certain facts, that is, of the “experimental material,” both past and present. To the question whether this investigation has yielded evident proof of diabolical action, the answer must be affirmative; for authentic accounts of the scientific examinations carried out in this regard and the results obtained, reference should be made to the bibliography.
Having established in general the reality of diabolical action, it remains to examine the technical terminology in use concerning the activity of the demon in the physical, biological, and psychic order. It may be classified as follows: a) local diabolical infestation, that is, the action of the demon upon lower physical and organized nature (plants and animals); b) personal diabolical infestation (in French: obsession): this consists in a series of temptations more violent and more continuous than ordinary temptations. It is external when it acts upon the subject’s external senses (for example, through real apparitions, understood as a real modification of the environment external to the subject, or as the actual introduction into the external environment of an objective “form”). It is internal when it operates upon the internal senses (for example, the imagination), producing internal impressions. In the same subject it may be simultaneously twofold: external and internal; c) diabolical possession (in French: possession): “it consists of two elements: the presence of the demon in the body of the possessed person, and the dominion which it exercises over this body and through it over the soul. This latter point needs explanation. The demon is not united to the body as the soul is united to it; in relation to the soul, it is only an external mover, and, if it acts upon it, it does so solely through the body in which it dwells. It can act directly upon the members of the body, making them perform every kind of movement; and it acts indirectly upon the faculties insofar as, in their operation, they depend upon the body” (A. Tanqueray, Compendio di teologia ascetica e mistica, 7th ed., Rome-Tournai-Paris 1928, p. 940).
With regard to local diabolical infestation, the Synoptic Gospels describe, for example, the episode of the swine invaded by the demon (Mt. 17, 14-17; Mc. 5, 2-13; Lc. 8, 27-33). Moreover, many cases are found in the lives of certain saints (St. Giovanni della Croce, St. Teresa d'Avila, St. Giovanni Bosco, the curé of Ars, etc.).
With regard to personal infestation and diabolical possession, the Synoptics speak to us of Jesus’ repeated encounters with the possessed, and of their deliverance at the divine command (Mt. 8, 16; 12, 22; 15, 22; 17, 14-17; Mc. 1, 23-26; 5, 2-13; 9, 16; Lc. 4, 33-35; 6, 18; 7, 21; 8, 2, 27-33; 9, 30, 43; etc.); the Atti Degli Apostoli (5, 16; 8, 7; 16, 16-18) attest to the persistence of the phenomenon of possession even after the Ascension of Jesus.
On the basis of the criteria of investigation suitable for identifying, when present, the action of the demon, and which will be discussed below, it is beyond doubt that many among the so-called “mediumistic” and, more generally, “metapsychic” phenomena are caused by the direct action of Satan (v. METAPSICHICA; SPIRITISMO).
On the basis, therefore, of the facts, and above all following the example of the Divine Master, the Church, from apostolic times onward, has continued to admit the possibility of diabolical infestation and possession, seeking the deliverance of the possessed by spiritual means, in particular through exorcisms. Guided, however, by profound wisdom, she admits the possibility of error: that manifestations of a purely natural order—such as, for example, nervous or psychic illnesses—may be mistaken for manifestations of the demon; while, conversely, cases of authentic diabolical vexation may be confused with the aforesaid illnesses. Evidence of this prudence is found in the admonitions of the Roman Ritual (De exorcizandis a daemonio, nn. 3-7), which lays down criteria of distinction and impresses upon the exorcist: in primis ne facile credat aliquem a daemonio obsessum esse.
II. DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA
First and foremost, and in every case, in order for the action of the demon to be admitted, the phenomena must manifest themselves in such a way as to exclude every other possible cause. Such a judgment, whenever it can be made, although negative, is certainly sufficient for a rigorous diagnosis, given its exclusive character. However, the exclusion of all causes other than the demon is not simple; indeed, it requires the utmost caution and depth of learning. For this reason, the references given here can only be summary. God, then, will be excluded whenever the manifestations, whether because of their purpose and intrinsic content (immoral, impious), or because of the circumstances in which they occur (spiritist séances, etc.), are incompatible with the attributes of God (infinite wisdom, majesty, etc.). Analogous criteria apply to pure but good spirits (angels) and to the souls of the dead, even the damned, if one holds, as Revelation teaches, that none of their actions upon the living and upon other earthly creatures can occur without a positive intervention by God. Likewise, the action of the living cannot be admitted when the phenomena reveal a material and intellectual content superior to the possibilities of the living person himself: such, for example, certainly seems to be «xenoglossy», especially when it occurs in children who, because of their age, are still incapable of speaking. Certainly, these negative criteria cannot be applied without the aid of positive norms capable of dispelling errors, since, for individual phenomena, such norms determine, on the basis of science, what exceeds—or does not exceed—the possibilities of human nature.In the light of modern research, manifestations explainable by the exercise of particular psychic activities, even if they are not common to every individual, such as telepathy, psychometry, etc. (v. CHIAROVEGGENZA), cannot, for example, be considered preternatural; nor can very many of the physical phenomena (telekinesis) found in mediumistic practices. These phenomena, which nevertheless possess something marvelous about them, are currently considered natural in character, or in all probability due to natural causes (v. Boyer, Cursus philosophiae, 2nd ed., Rome 1944, p. 220).
For these reasons, given the present state of our knowledge, the physical and psychological criteria listed in the Roman Ritual do not seem capable of being accepted wholesale, that is, without discrimination: «...signa autem obsidentis daemonis sunt: ignota lingua loqui pluribus verbis, vel loquentem intelligere; distantia et occulta patefacere; vires supra netatis seu conditionis naturam ostendere... et alia id genus, quae cum plurima occurrant, maiora sunt indicia». Today... «les progrès de la métapsychique ne nous permettent plus d'utiliser les critères de la possession comme on le faisait au XVIIᵉ siècle... Nous sommes obligés d'être plus réservés» (R. Dahliez, in Etudes carmélitaines, 23 [1938, II], p. 229).
This caution is all the more advisable if one takes into account that, as a result of the progress of the medical sciences, facts that yesterday were suspected of being diabolical are today unquestionably established as natural. It will therefore be necessary for the exorcist, in order to avoid pernicious misunderstandings, to consult physicians of integrity, deeply versed in the science of nervous and mental illnesses. With regard to these illnesses, it should be said that their symptomatology, particularly in the eyes of a layperson, may display such extraordinary and inexplicable characteristics that it takes on the appearance of the preternatural. Thus, illusions and hallucinations may be mistaken for apparitions, nightmares, commands, and demonic threats; delusions may follow and connect with one another in an apparently logical and plausible construction, which may accompany the course of the individual’s life without disturbing his normal daily activity, so that his life retains a certain appearance of normality. This is particularly so in the lucid, systematized delusions characteristic of paranoia. «Demonomania» belongs to these forms, which may be confused with diabolical obsession and possession: forms in which confusion is easy because of the subject’s calm, detailed, coherent, and repeated assertions, while to the layperson he appears all the more normal because his symptomatology lacks the violent agitation, convulsive attacks, and episodes of suspension of consciousness («trance») commonly believed to be attributes of the acknowledged madman.
Neuropsychasthenic forms (v. NEVRASTENIA) may give rise to pathological conditions interpretable as d. m., particularly in the form of personal diabolical infestation. The obsessive idea (v. PSICOSI OSSESSIVA) that forcefully becomes lodged in the individual’s consciousness, causing intense and invincible suffering, together with the anguished fear, in phobias, that it may come true; obsessive impulses, which seem irresistibly to drive the subject, in defiance of every contrary wish, to perform a detested action or to prevent him from carrying out something he strongly desires—these may be regarded as vexatious actions of the demon. In particular, hysteria is a producer of pseudo-diabolical conditions; it may be said, without exaggeration, that the great majority of cases of false obsession and infestation should be attributed to II. It is a sound rule, in every case of presumed diabolical action, to look in the individual for possible signs of the aforesaid neurosis. The characteristic tendency to imitation and suggestion («pithiatism»), to systematic lying (v. MITOMANIA), to divisions of consciousness, to curious disturbances of sensibility, and to convulsive crises are the elementary stones with which hysteria constructs the conditions of false d. m., often characterized by their theatrical and exhibitionistic form. Another illness capable of generating misunderstandings is epilepsy, in which one must bear in mind not only the major convulsive crises, but also the forms of «petit mal», the «absences», episodic impulses toward violence, and states of dementia.
The fundamental criteria capable of guiding the diagnosis of d. m. have been indicated in outline; nevertheless, at this point it must be added that in not a few cases it is impossible to establish a differential investigation capable of attaining certainty, since there may in fact be conditions displaying identical external manifestations, differing only in the determining cause, one preternatural and the other natural. One may be convinced of this simply by studying two externally similar cases healed by Jesus: the blind man of Bethsaida (Mc. 8, 22-26) and the demon-possessed mute blind man (Mt. 12, 22); whereas in the first case he brought about the cure by miraculously restoring health, in the second the result was achieved by freeing the sick man from diabolical infestation. Yet what was so easy for Jesus’s penetrating wisdom may even be impossible for the exorcist. In such a situation, the truly wise rule to follow is to presume, in the first instance, that the facts are of a natural order, applying the «principle of economy», according to which recourse should be had to a preternatural explanation, and to the consequent therapy, only when the natural explanation proves wholly insufficient.
In doubt, therefore, once the means of treatment recommended by medicine have failed—which cannot possess the value of absolute proof, given the limitations of the medical art—the exorcist will act cautiously, gradually administering exorcisms as the natural treatments prove ineffective, while always avoiding those externally suggestive and impressive forms that could harmfully affect the psychic equilibrium of the afflicted person, should he be nothing more than a neuropathic.
III. THE VARIOUS MODES OF M. D. — A violent overexcitation of the nervous system is habitually discernible, both in its vegetative activity and in the activity of relational life, together with a greater or lesser enhancement—at times truly extraordinary—of the sensory, intellectual, and volitional functions, and often an inexplicable development of the subject’s physical energy, enabling him to
display an agility, strength, and suddenness of action more than beastlike. Not infrequently, all this is framed within the features of a clearly recognizable natural illness, as, moreover, may be inferred from the Gospel in the case of the epileptic lunatic demoniac (Mt. 4:24; 17:14); in the various forms of localized paralysis and contractures (Lk. 13:11–16), blindness, deafness, muteness (Mt. 9:32; 12:22; Mk. 7:32; 9:24), and in the person afflicted by attacks of manic agitation (Mk. 1:26; 9:17–21; Lk. 9:39).
These pseudonatural forms are often accompanied by prodigious phenomena, such as the strangest and most unexpected manifestations of clairvoyance, xenoglossy, levitation of one’s own body, etc.