Demonic Possession
A person thought to be demonically possessed is said to suffer a complete behavior takeover by a demonic entity. The entity may dominate the victim so the person becomes the demonic entity.
Christian theology in the middle ages deemed the concept of demonic possession heretical, so anyone displaying unusual behavior or a strange personality was automatically suspect of being possessed by the devil. The devil, or his demons, who did the possessing were called the energumenus and the possessed person was the energumen.
It was thought that there were two ways of becoming possessed by the devil. Either the Devil passes directly into the person, or someone in collaboration with the devil, usually said to be a witch or wizard, sends a demon into the victim through bewilderment.
The Catholic Church still defines true signs of possession as displaying superhuman strength often accompanied by fits and convulsions, changes in personality, having knowledge of the future or other secret information, and being able to understand and converse in languages no perviously known to the victim, such as the phenomenon glossolalia.
Early Puritan ministers, and later Protestant clergy, agreed on the same symptoms for declaring a person demonically possessed. Included in the list of other symptoms for declaring demonic possession are the practice of lewd and obscene or even sexual thoughts, horrible smells of bodily odors or of sulphur, disteneded stomachs, rapid weight loss where death seems inevitable, changes in the voice to a deep rasping, menacing, guttural croak. Occasionally, there may be signs of automatic writings or levitation.
At present the one main basis for declaring a person possessed seems to be a violent revulsion toward sacred objects and texts.
