Spirit Possession and the 6th Sense

By Anonymous -
After reading Ariel Glucklich's Sacred Pain for my critical book review, I found that his discussion of spirit possession connected with the 6th sense.  The examples that Gucklich uses are tied to the influence of pain on the resulting of possession a well as the importance of pain to expel the spirit or devil from the individual possessed.  There are also cases of voluntary possessions such as shamans and exorcists who choose to become possessed to assist a patient.  Glucklich states "the pain serves as the phenomenal signal that brings the body into the real of the perceiving self and reestablishes a hierarchy of self-control” (2001:116).  His statement explains that pain is linked to possession, and I would argue serves a form of embodiment that can lead to the return bodily self-control because of its effect of the nervous system.  I found that in his book, Glucklich was discussing some form of 6th sense with his example of spirit possession. With possession, there is a connection between an individual and the spirit world, resulting in something that can be hard to explain.  I realize these possessions are commonly linked to mental illness but I feel that maybe there is another explanation and Glucklich's description of pain in possession opens a discussion of this possibility. Much like many of the other sense we have talked about in class, spirit possession is shaped by culture. The culture constructs the ghost presented and Glucklich presents the possibility that these ghosts are constructed of things that may be inappropriate to the cultural and social context. 
The Nightmare - John Henry Fuseli

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