by Brian Griffith.
Besides avoiding physical or social sources of corruption, many ancient people feared losing their souls to spiritual enemies. Demonic spirits could poison the mind or possess the body. “Mental illness” seemed to indicate control by alien entities, and all illnesses were like invasions of negative forces. Perhaps that’s why the English word “illness” stems from the word “evilness” (Loehnen, p. 255). Resisting such affliction seemed like a battle of good vs. evil spirits. As Will Durant noted, ancient West Asians generally believed that “disease was possession, and was due to sin; therefore it had to be treated mainly by incantations, magic, and prayer; when drugs were used they were aimed not to cleanse the patient but to terrify and exorcise the demon” (p. 258). If the enemy force was not driven out, it could claim the victim’s soul in this life and the next.
In the gospel accounts, Jesus draws massive crowds as word of his healing powers spreads. The healings are described as either literal exorcisms of evil spirits, or else “faith healings,” through inviting in God’s spirit. Even the stories of Jesus forgiving sins, such as those of “a woman who was living an immoral life” (Luke 7:37), were commonly interpreted as exorcisms of evil spirits. Pope Gregory I (590–604 CE) claimed that this immoral woman had been Mary Magdalene, and that Jesus had expelled seven evil spirits from her (Mark 16:9). Gregory further explained that those spirits were the seven deadly sins, which included the evil spirit of lust (Loehnen, pp. 12).
Ancient people also feared that possession by unclean spirits was contagious. To protect the community, people who seemed mentally deranged might be cast out into the wilderness, to join the lepers and other dangerous “incurables” wandering there. In the gospel accounts we see Jewish religious leaders avoiding all contact with unclean people, be they afflicted with physical diseases or mental demons. Many observers were amazed that Jesus risked polluting himself by visiting, touching, and seeking to “cleanse” afflicted people. Even modern people like Rima Vesely-Flad found it inspiring. In her book Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies, she emphasized that Jesus “uplifted those whose bodies were deemed polluted: bleeding and invalid people, lepers, demon-possessed men, and women” (p. 305).
If disease, insanity, and immorality were caused by harmful spirits, then it seemed clear that health, success, and salvation depended on guidance by good or holy spirits. Therefore, vast numbers of people have assumed that the main question of religion is which spirit will guide them. And naturally, people who claim protection or guidance by the right spirits have diverse images of who those spirits are. Benito Mussolini told Hitler that he was “mystically and scientifically convinced of being possessed not by a demon, but by a spirit from Aryan mythological pre-history” (Farrell, p. 387). He apparently saw no contradiction between guidance by this ancestral spirit, and guidance by the holy spirit of his Catholic faith.
In the post-theocratic Western world, numerous Christian leaders and politicians have continued to treat rival ideologies, negative social trends, or foreign religious beliefs as if they were animate enemy spirits, seeking control over people’s minds. Numerous church leaders portrayed Communism as a Satan-directed conspiracy to brainwash people across the planet. To protect the public from spiritual corruption, the U.S. state of Alabama passed a law (in the 1990s) forbidding the teaching of yoga in public schools, as yoga seemed to be a religious practice for invoking Hindu deities. In 2021 this ban was lifted, in recognition that yoga could be practiced as a purely physical exercise for enhancing health. However, the new law maintained restrictions on any yogic practices involving the mind or spirit: “School personnel may not use any techniques that involve hypnosis, the introduction of a dissociative mental state, guided imagery, meditation, or any aspect of Eastern philosophy and religious training in which meditation and contemplation are joined with physical exercises to facilitate the development of body-mind-spirit” (Pontiac, p. 35). That would come too close to inviting mind control by the wrong spirits.
People concerned to protect the public mind from corruption have commonly assumed that all their diverse critics are agents for one greater enemy of humanity. So we have our great moral crusaders such as Oliver Cromwell, Maximilien Robespierre, Francisco Franco, or Mao Zedong, seeking to eliminate heretical traitors lest the forces of evil infest us all. In a similar but less murderous spirit, the American leaders of a fascistic religious “I AM” movement (namely Guy and Edna Ballard) evoked spiritual expulsion for all agents of evil, through the power of forceful “decrees.” In the 1930s they published an I AM Decree Book, giving 71 decrees for their followers to recite. For example, “I call on the Angels of Blue Lighting, the Legions of Light to stand guard over your America; My America; that every person who tries to bring destructive conditions, qualities or activities into America SHALL CEASE TO EXIST IN HUMAN FORM” (Pontiac, pp. 482–483). In the afterlife as well, those spirits would be banished from the higher realms.
This article is drawn from a manuscript called “How to Qualify for Immortality.”
Sources
Durant, Will (1956) Our Oriental Heritage, Simon & Schuster.
Farrell, Nicholas (2003) Mussolini: A New Life, Weidenfeld & Nicholson.
Loehnen, Elise (2023) On Our Best Behavior, The Dial Press.
Pontiac, Ronnie (2023) American Metaphysical Religion, Inner Traditions.
Vesely-Flad, Rima (2017) Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies, Fortress Press.