p. 5 | Demoniacal Possession

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Nov 7, 1907

Demoniacal Possession

For months past a strong wave of fanaticism has been sweeping over India, greatly hindering true evangelical work. While some of the religious leaders have looked upon it with more or less complacency, others have denounced it as “demoniacal possession.” A tract is now being circulated there dealing with the matter and pointing out the dangers of yielding to the control of that influence. We quote from it the following:—

The way they get hold of persons is as follows: A soul goes through a great struggle, and is wonderfully blessed. Floods of light and emotion sweep through the being. The shore lines are all cut. The soul is launched out into a sea of extravagant experience. At such a juncture these demons hover around the soul, and make strange suggestions to the mind of something odd, or outlandish, or contrary to common sense and decent taste. They make these suggestions under the profession of being the Holy Ghost. They fan the emotions, and produce a strange, fictitious exhilaration, which is simply their bait to get into some faculty of the soul.

One good man says he felt like running around the camp and climbing every tree, but had enough discernment to “try spirits,” and found the impulse was not of God. But another person at the same camp-meeting felt the same impulse and yielded to it, and went yelling and screaming through the woods, climbing trees, tearing his clothes, exhausting his body, and in a short time became utterly useless to the work of God.

These displays are strikingly analogous to those manifested in different parts of this country recently by individuals who “come through” the experience of receiving the “gift of tongues.” If “demoniacal possession” is the cause of these demonstrations in India, it is not even supposable that the same demonstrations in America are produced by the Holy Spirit.