Demon possession and allied themes; being an inductive study of phenomena of our own times

CHAPTER X: CHARACTER OF THE EVIDENCE PRESENTED,

AND THE FACTS ESTABLISHED BY IT.

As regards the trustworthiness of the foreign missionaries whose testimony and opinions have been presented in the preceding chapters, nothing need be said. Something may be learned of their views from the communications which have already been given, but more is required to show the attitude of the missionary body as a whole.

It is important to premise that most missionaries come to China with a strong prejudgment of the matter, holding the opinion generally prevalent in Christian countries that demon-possessions were providentially permitted in Apostolic times, and made to subserve important ends in the establishment of the Christian church; but that they are events only of the past. This prejudgment is so strong in some persons that the possibility of such cases at present is not for a moment entertained. A young missionary recently arrived in China, on learning that this subject was being examined into, expressed with great warmth, and in very positive terms, his "surprise that missionaries should spend their time in such an enquiry or allow native Christians connected with them to talk about or believe in 'possessions' as an existing fact."
It is my impression from a large correspondence with missionaries in China, and from personal acquaintance with many of them, that they do not, as a rule, hold the positive and extreme view above expressed. Some whose time is mostly spent in the open ports, and in literary work in the study, have not had their attention specially called to this subject, and have not come into possession of facts upon which to form a judgment. I have only known two who have expressed positive unbelief in the reality of these "possessions."
On the other hand there are Protestant missionaries who have no doubt that numerous cases may be found in China of "demon-possession" similar to those which were met with in the early history of the church. Missionaries who have personal and familiar intercourse with infant churches in the interior of China will, I think, agree in the statement that supposed cases of this kind are very numerous; and I believe also that it is the growing opinion that the natives are right in attributing them to demons.
The attitude of missionaries generally may, I think, be correctly stated by saying that a few believe that the so-called demon-possessions are not really such, but only a delusion; a larger number believe them to be real; while a still larger proportion of the whole missionary body are in a state of uncertainty, unprepared to express a positive opinion on one side or the other.
The question is sometimes asked: If these cases are so numerous, why are they not seen by the foreigner; thus giving the public, so far as it is interested in this subject, the advantage of his personal examinations and testimony, instead of leaving it to depend almost exclusively on Chinese evidence? The reasons for this are not difficult to find.
It should be borne in mind that the foreign missionary is only occasionally and temporarily at these country out-stations, perhaps, on an average,only two or three days in any one village in a year; and these phenomena occurring generally in his absence, are, when the aid of Christians is sought, naturally taken to the resident native Christians or preachers.
Again, race prejudices, and the customary restrictions upon social intercourse, and especially the dread of malicious and scandalous reports which would almost certainly result from inviting a stranger of another race to visit a native family, act as a strong deterrent to prevent natives from bringing these cases to a foreigner.
In a foreign missionary's first visits to a new field of labor (the time during which, for reasons hereafter stated, most of these cases occur), not only the Chinese generally, but many Christian families would instinctively avoid if possible a personal visit from him. His coming to their houses would almost inevitably attract a rabble made up of street loungers, village roughs, and boisterous children, and it is more than probable that suspicious neighbors, and curious strangers influenced by the excitement, and taking advantage of the general confusion, would disregard the ordinary rules of propriety and mingle with the crowd; altogether occasioning no little inconvenience for the time, and a great deal of offensive talk, and perhaps insults and annoyances afterwards.
While the visit of a foreigner at the first stage of intercourse with the Chinese would be attended by the above mentioned inconveniences, a native Christian can enter a Chinese family almost unobserved. Considering all the circumstances it is but natural that these cases should in almost every instance be brought to the notice of the native Christian, rather than the foreign missionary.
There is another reason, perhaps still stronger than those given above, which tends to the same result. Most missionaries— all of them so far as is known to the writer— have an instinctive shrinking from encountering, or even encouraging these manifestations. The feelings of the foreign missionary on this subject are understood by the natives, and consequently they naturally apply to their own people rather than to us. It is interesting to notice that in the instance given from the Roman church in a previous chapter, the case of supposed demon-posssesion was also brought to a native Christian, and not to the foreign teacher.
Missionaries are however sometimes applied to, as I was once myself when in company with Rev. C. P. Scott, now Bishop of the Church of England in North China. We were invited and urged by our muleteer, in whose village we were passing a night, to visit his home and cast an evil-spirit out of his sister-in-law. Our ability to do this was not, however, put to the test; as the member of the family, when she was consulted about the matter, refused to have us enter the house.
The fact of our hearing through native Christians of many more of these cases now, than some years ago, is due to the following reasons: At first Christian teachers, natives as well as foreigners, were viewed with suspicion and distrust, and there was great difficulty in gaining free access to the people. You might be in a village where there were numbers of these "possessed" persons, but the inhabitants would stoutly deny their existence. A variety of reasons combine to produce this reticence, the chief of which are the sense of disgrace on the part of a family so unfortunate as to have such a case; the fear shared by all the villagers of offending and incurring the revenge of the demon; and also the fear of putting a stranger in possession of information which might lead to serious difficulties and complications.
When, however, an individual or a family in an isolated village embraces Christianity, and reads the instances of demon-possession related in the New Testament, he naturally recommends his neighbors who are similarly afflicted to apply to Jesus for relief. When relief has been obtained the fact is soon generally known, and others who are suffering from the same malady are led to apply to Christians for help. After converts have been made, and mutual sympathy and confidence are established among them, and between them and their foreign teachers, then these experiences are freely disclosed.
The above considerations will explain why it is that we must for circumstantial facts in evidence, so far as China is concerned, depend principally upon the native Christians, Their belief, in common with the great mass of their countrymen in the reality of these manifestations is almost universal. It would be useless to argue with them on the subject. You might as well try to raise doubts in their minds as to their own personal identity, or the trustworthiness of their senses. In many cases the only effect of a missionary's dogmatically denying the reality of demon-possessions would be to produce in them the impression that he had a limited experience, narrow views, and was not wholly to be relied upon as a religious teacher.
Now with regard to the testimony of the native Christians, which has been presented in the previous chapters, I would remark:
1. I have endeavored to give no evidence except that of Christian men and women of intelligence and worth.
2. They testify to facts of which they have been eye and ear witnesses; and which are for the most part of recent occurrence.
3. The events to which they testify have not taken place in private, known to themselves only, or to a few others, but are of general notoriety, the witnesses to which could be indefinitely multiplied.
4. No conceivable motive can be adduced for fabrication or misrepresentation. These "demon-possessions" are, even in the view of the natives, repulsive and disreputable, and they know that they are still more distasteful to their foreign teachers.
5. This is not a hobby, or a subject which is to them of special interest or concern ; as spiritualism, for instance, is to its adherents. On the contrary it is associated with disagreeable experiences which they would gladly forget, and which under ordinary circumstances they seldom allude to.
6. Belief in the reality of possessions by invisible spirits is not necessarily connected with a superstitious habit of mind. Chinese Christians generally are gradually disenthralled from their old heathenish superstitions such as "fung-shui," the worship of the dragon, of the kitchen god, and the earth god, and their almost innumerable deities of the Buddhist and Taoist religions; but as a rule, they remain unshaken in their belief in the reality of demon-possessions.
7. They do not regard this subject as belonging to the domain of the marvelous. They do not consider man with his material body, the exclusive rational occupant of the earth. They believe in spirits, and in their view it is no more unnatural for an evil spirit to exist, and to act like an evil spirit, than for a man to be a man.
8. The opinions held by them are not taught or suggested to them by their foreign teachers. On the contrary these beliefs have generally been discouraged.
9. There could be no collusion between these witnesses. They belong to sections of country widely separated, which have little or no communication with each other, and in which different dialects are spoken.
10. These cases are not associated together as the result of a general psychic epidemic, or craze, in which delusion or imposture is sympathetically communicated from one person to another. They are isolated and independent, both as regards time and locality, and are generally attended with but little excitement. The question as to the explanation and the actual cause of the phenomena which we are considering is by no means to be determined by the opinions of the Chinese or of any other race. We have only appealed to the Chinese for facts which have come under their own observation, and of which they are competent witnesses.³⁶ The questions, what are the facts established, and how are these facts to be accounted for, will be considered hereafter.
It is a confirmation of the truth of the evidence of these Chinese witnesses that it agrees in every important particular with that of other nations ancient and modern. The importance claimed for the evidence of these Chinese witnesses is, that it shows the persistence of these phenomena up to the present time, and furnishes details not to be expected when this subject is not specifically treated, but only referred to incidentally and fragmentarily.
The facts established in the previous chapters may be summarized as follows:
1. Certain abnormal physical and mental phenomena such as have been witnessed in all ages, and among all nations, and attributed to possession by demons, are of frequent occurrence in China and other nations at this day, aud have been generally referred to the same cause.
2. The supposed demoniac at the time of "possession" passes into an abnormal state, the character of which varies indefinitely, being marked by depression and melancholy; or vacancy and stupidity amounting sometimes almost to idiocy, or it may be that he becomes ecstatic, or ferocious and malignant.
3. During transition from the normal to the abnormal state, the subject is often thrown into paroxysms, more or less violent, during which he sometimes falls on the ground senseless, or foams at the mouth presenting symptoms similar to those of epilepsy or hysteria.
4. The intervals between these attacks vary indefinitely from hours to months, and during these intervals the physical and mental condition of the subject may be in every respect healthy and normal. The duration of the abnormal states varies from a few minutes to several days. The attacks are sometimes mild, and sometimes violent. If frequent and violent the physical health suffers.
5. During the transition period the subject often retains more or less of his normal consciousness. The violence of the paroxysms is increased if the subject struggles against, and endeavors to repress the abnormal symptoms. When he yields himself to them the violence of the paroxysms abates, or ceases altogether.
6. When normal consciousness is restored after one of these attacks the subject is entirely ignorant of everything which has passed during that state.
7. The most striking characteristic of these cases is that the subject evidences another personality, and the normal personality for the time being is partially or wholly dormant.
8. The new personality presents traits of character utterly different from those which really belong to the subject in his normal state, and this change of character is with rare exceptions in the direction of moral obliquity and impurity.
9. Many persons while "demon-possessed" give evidence of knowledge which cannot be accounted for in ordinary ways. They often appear to know of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Divine Person, and show an aversion to, and fear of Him. They sometimes converse in foreign languages of which in their normal states they are entirely ignorant.
10. There are often heard, in connection with "demon-possessions," rappings and noises in places where no physical cause for them can be found; and tables, chairs, crockery and the like are moved about without, so far as can be discovered, any application of physical force, exactly as we are told is the case among spiritualists.
11. Many cases of "demon-possession" have been cured by prayer to Christ, or in his name, some very readily, some with difficulty. So far as we have been able to discover, this method of cure has not failed in any case, however stubborn and long continued, in which it has been tried. And in no instance, so far as appears, has the malady returned, if the subject has become a Christian, and continued to lead a Christian life.