OK, I admit that possession is not 9/10ths of the law, and before you all go running off to find an exorcist I can safely say that I'm not talking about that kind of possession either.
Within taoism, and especially acupuncture, there is another meaning to the term 'being possessed' and that is being possessed by a concept or action, either internally or externally.
Well, that sounds like fun.
For a taoist, possession is something we constantly watch out for as it can create the greatest stumbling blocks in our evolution as spirit-being-human. The idea is that in becoming possesed we create internal chemical/emotional links that modify our behaviour to satisfy the possession.
What can we be possessed by?
Basically, anything; from relationships to interests, from illnesses to a sense of euphoria, and as an aspie looking at possession I did cry out "Special Interests!!!". Now, calm down, not all special interests imply possession, the condition of possession is clearly mapped out. In diagnosis it can be tricky as the identifiers for possession can be 'fleeting' or 'established'. However, they are there, and comprise of such things as, shortness of breath, glazed eyes, anxiety, panic, euphoria, rapid changes in blood pressure etc.
Here's an example of possession involving an ex-patient of mine who allowed me to use it for teaching.
Normally I do not treat people for smoking, but one day I was approached by a lady regarding quitting and there was something about her eyes that caught my attention.
One the first treatment she gave me the story of her smoking, how she was disgusted by it but couldn't quit. I gave her a preliminary detox treatment and suggested we set up a regime to stop the social angle next time.
By chance I was in a restaurant a couple of evenings later when this lady arrived and was seated across the room from me. Now in those days you could smoke anywhere you liked and she quickly lit a cigarette.
Here's where it got interesting because she never smoked the cigarette. After lighting it up, she placed it in the ashtray and watched it burn away, and repeated this process several times during the evening.
Her next visit had me change tack, I wanted to know what she found interesting about cigarettes, why light it and watch it burn?
I wired her up to a heart monitor, took her readings and asked the question.
"I don't know" she replied, "I like the way the smoke curls up".
In that small moment her heart rate rose and her eyes blanked out, her voice was almost wistful and her hands became clammy.
Having got her comfortable I set up a needle pattern for 'internal dragons', the treatment for possession. I began a process of 'associative displacement', bouncing her through her memories at random until we got this.
"I remember that when I was five our house burnt down, I was standing outside with my mom and dad watching the firemen. The flames were really pretty but frightened me and I could see the smoke curling up."
I got her to tell me the story again but with more detail, she zoned out and her pulse changed, she was crying and as I held her hand she said, "That smoke, I couldn't stop watching the smoke, all my toys were in the smoke!"
That treatment took a total of three hours. Two days later I got a call from her saying that she had dreamt about the fire the night after the treatment, but was calling to say she hadn't lit a cigarette since. She stills see me very occasionally for other things, but has never smoked again.
Whoa there tiger!! Not all smokers watched their house burn down and not all of them are possessed. The story was about possession, not smoking.
Another example was a patient who turned out to be possessed by the memory of her exboyfriends tackle (I'm being polite here). She didn't care that he was famous, she just fixated on that one (huge) thing and it cost her every relationship after that.
Both of those cases are internal possesions, meaning, the cause of the possession has become a filter in the ego of the person. It is based upon the memory of the event.
External possession is a little trickier as it is based upon something you have not experienced but find fascinating. That fascination drives the ego to create filters that can cause irrational behaviour. Idol worship can cause possesion, but so can being fascinated by cutting earthworms in two and watching them continue to crawl away in different directions.
Yes, I've treated both instances!
Add to that the fact that both forms of possession can also come with depression and you get an idea of the slippery nature of the beast.
Thanks to the media the occurence of external possesions is increasing and is totally ignored by western medicine. What is worse is that traditional styles of acupuncture are being replaced by more 'modern' allopathic regimes that do not recognise spiritual or mental conditions in the same way.
