The Possession at Loudun


Book Description

It is August 18, 1634. Father Urbain Grandier, convicted of sorcery that led to the demonic possession of the Ursuline nuns of provincial Loudun in France, confesses his sins on the porch of the church of Saint-Pierre, then perishes in flames lit by his own exorcists. A dramatic tale that has inspired many artistic retellings, including a novel by Aldous Huxley and an incendiary film by Ken Russell, the story of the possession at Loudun here receives a compelling analysis from the renowned Jesuit historian Michel de Certeau. Interweaving substantial excerpts from primary historical documents with fascinating commentary, de Certeau shows how the plague of sorceries and possessions in France that climaxed in the events at Loudun both revealed the deepest fears of a society in traumatic flux and accelerated its transformation. In this tour de force of psychological history, de Certeau brings to vivid life a people torn between the decline of centralized religious authority and the rise of science and reason, wracked by violent anxiety over what or whom to believe. At the time of his death in 1986, Michel de Certeau was a director of studies at the école des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris. He was author of eighteen books in French, three of which have appeared in English translation as The Practice of Everyday Life,The Writing of History, and The Mystic Fable, Volume 1, the last of which is published by The University of Chicago Press. "Brilliant and innovative. . . . The Possession at Loudun is [de Certeau's] most accessible book and one of his most wonderful."—Stephen Greenblatt (from the Foreword)




The Nun's Possession


Book Description

Lorelei is a demon, a punisher of the damned. But one fateful day she is able to escape from Hell. Sister Kathleen is a nun, dedicated to helping others. What will she do when an otherworldly being takes up residence in her mind? Can she control the perverse urges of a horny demon? Or will she fall into a sinful, sexy darkness? Find out today in "Hell's Horny Demon: Possession!" ~~~~~ PG Excerpt ~~~~~ If she still had her physical form, Lorelei would be rubbing her hands together in glee. True, the tall, gawky youth in front of Kathleen was not at all the sort of man she would have chosen for her first sexual encounter in thousands of years. But beggars could hardly be choosers, after all. And it had taken all of her considerable cunning to worm her way past Kathleen’s defenses and bring her to this spot to begin with. For a mortal, the woman’s willpower was really quite remarkably strong. So strong, in fact, that Lorelei briefly wondered who was actually doing the choosing. Was she actually corrupting the virginal young nun? Or were her whispered hints and the erotic dreams she had been sending Kathleen nightly only nudging her in a direction she already wished to go? Who cares? She guided Kathleen’s hands to the ridiculous fastenings of Nick’s trousers, teasing the young man with a brush of fingers against his eager manhood. Mortal, angel, or demon, males were all alike. If you were smart enough, you could lead them around by their manhood, and they would be none the wiser for it. With fingers that had learned how to navigate Kathleen’s clothing over the last few days, she undid the buckle of the leather belt, then the button which held Nick’s trousers up. A push, a whisper of falling cloth, and the young man was nude from waist to knee. He swallowed, looking down at her nervously. “Is it…” “It’s beautiful.” And Lorelei couldn’t help but wonder if it was her voice whispering in wonder and awe, or Kathleen’s. She reached out with her host’s body, feeling the hot skin, tight-stretched over the throbbing, pulsing length of Nick’s erection. If her heart had anything left in it but ashes and dust, she might have wept at the sheer, human, ordinariness of him. ~So long,~ she whimpered. It had been so long. When she, along with the rest of the rebellious angels, had been cast out of Heaven, the Almighty had cursed the male demons with a foul ugliness that was could drive a human to madness. Which was why Lorelei had no need or desire for a sexual superman. She had lived for generations with a hideous reality that would make most humans run screaming in horror. Anything, even this untested youth, would be so much better that there was literally no comparison between the two. But… ~Lift up your sweater,~ she urged Kathleen. ~Show him our body.~ A hint of coolness as the soft cloth was pushed upward, a balm on her pain-ravaged senses. Nick’s eyes went wide, and Lorelei stifled a hint of triumph It wasn’t her body, after all. Not yet. But it was still a good one. One to be proud of. The tips of her breasts were tingling, almost aching in their need to be touched. She moved Kathleen’s fingers faster, watching Nick’s face go slack with pleasure. She could do it. Make him climax, bind him to the two of them. But she wanted more. Needed more. “What can I do for you?” Nick asked, his eyes worshipful. “You can love me.” Lorelei took Nick’s hands and put them on her breasts. “I have waited too long. I am tired of waiting. I want to know what it’s like to be with a human. A man,” she corrected quickly, hoping Nick wouldn’t catch the slip. She ran her hands up his chest, savoring the feel, and used her legs to pull him in close. “I need it, Nick. Need to be held, to be touched, to be loved. “Can you do that for me?”




Possession


Book Description

The first edition of this illuminating study, addressed both to readers new to Jung and to those already familiar with his work, offered fresh insights into a fundamental concept of analytical psychology. This revised edition has been fully updated to reflect the publication of the DSM-5. Craig Stephenson anatomizes Jung’s concept of possession, reinvesting Jungian psychotherapy with its positive potential for practice. Analogizing the concept – lining it up comparatively beside the history of religion, anthropology, psychiatry, and even drama and film criticism – offers not a naive syncretism, but enlightening possibilities along the borders of these diverse disciplines. An original, wide-ranging exploration of phenomena both ancient and modern, Possession offers a conceptual bridge between psychology and anthropology, challenges psychiatry to culturally contextualize its diagnostic manual, and posits a much more fluid, pluralistic and embodied notion of selfhood. It will prove essential reading for Jungian psychotherapists, analytical and depth psychologists and psychiatrists as well as academics and students of anthropology, mythology and religious studies.




Demons!


Book Description

THE DEVILS (1971) Ken Russell's horrifying film of the possession and resultant exorcism of the "Loudun Nuns," (based upon the book THE DEVILS OF LOUDON by Aldous Huxley), scourged the eyes of audiences in the 1970s, with its harsh, brutal, and sickening depiction of blasphemous torture, hideous pain, possession, and wild, orgiastic rites to fallen spirits. Now here is the classic full account of this bizarre, startling, and tragic chapter in the history of possession and exorcism, the annals of primitive witch hysteria: the exorcism of the Loudun Nuns, and the subsequent trial and hideous execution, by burning, of Father Urbain Grandier, (claimed by some to have entered into a pact with Satan to torment and afflict the sisters of the afflicted Ursuline order). Was Urbain Grandier an emissary of Satan? Or was he simply a man caught up in the crosshairs of his vindictive enemies and powerful forces, those willing to send a man to his death for purely political reasons? What of the hunchbacked Sister Jeanne? Was she really the focus of a black, demonic incubus? Or was she simply a disturbed, repressed woman, one whose life of piety, self-abnegation, penance, and sacrifice, lead her to the brink of madness? To read this chilling account is to step back through a doorway in time, gaining an insight into the hysteria of the witchcraft hysteria of the old world, and what it might tell us about our own contemporary society. Published by Zem Books




The Rite


Book Description

The inspiration for the film starring Anthony Hopkins, journalist Matt Baglio uses the astonishing story of one American priest's training as an exorcist to reveal that the phenomena of possession, demons, the Devil, and exorcism are not merely a remnant of the archaic past, but remain a fearsome power in many people's lives even today. Father Gary Thomas was working as a parish priest in California when he was asked by his bishop to travel to Rome for training in the rite of exorcism. Though initially surprised, and slightly reluctant, he accepted this call, and enrolled in a new exorcism course at a Vatican-affiliated university, which taught him, among other things, how to distinguish between a genuine possession and mental illness. Eventually he would go on to participate in more than eighty exorcisms as an apprentice to a veteran Italian exorcist. His experiences profoundly changed the way he viewed the spiritual world, and as he moved from rational skeptic to practicing exorcist he came to understand the battle between good and evil in a whole new light. Journalist Matt Baglio had full access to Father Gary over the course of his training, and much of what he learned defies explanation. The Rite provides fascinating vignettes from the lives of exorcists and people possessed by demons, including firsthand accounts of exorcists at work casting out demons, culminating in Father Gary's own confrontations with the Devil. Baglio also traces the history of exorcism, revealing its rites and rituals, explaining what the Catholic Church really teaches about demonic possession, and delving into such related topics as the hierarchy of angels and demons, satanic cults, black masses, curses, and the various theories used by modern scientists and anthropologists who seek to quantify such phenomena. Written with an investigative eye that will captivate both skeptics and believers alike, The Rite shows that the truth about demonic possession is not only stranger than fiction, but also far more chilling.




Satan's Harvest


Book Description

The shocking true case of demonic possession from the reporters who first covered it in the Boston Herald. The case was discussed and you can watch the real exorcism footage in the blockbuster horror film The Conjuring. When terrifying, bizarre things kept happening to a hard-working Massachusetts farmer, he did what anyone would do. First he went to the local police chief. Then he went to his priest. And then he went to Ed and Lorraine Warren, the world’s most famous demonologists who investigated the “The Amityville Horror” and other terrifying cases of demonic possession. It was the Warrens who called in one of America’s most renowned exorcists, Bishop Robert McKenna. What they all experienced is described in this extraordinary book. Absolutely terrifying. Absolutely true. Don't miss the Warrens' new film "Annabelle" (October, 2014).




Demonic Possession


Book Description

The idea of people possessed by evil spirits against their will is as old as the hills. Often there is thought to be a special way a person has become possessed. It might be the result of a curse cast on them by a sorcerer, or some unfortunate mishap such as stepping over a dead body. Or the demons can have been invited, in a Satanic ritual. More often, at least in recent Christian tradition, there is no initiating moment that can be identified - they just find their way in, like disease. From Pearl Curran, a housewife living in St Louis, Missouri, who soared to fame in the second decade of the 20th century as the amanuensis of 'Patience Worth', a writer who had died in the 17th century, to victims of Dissociative Personality Disorder (thought to have inspired Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde), this book examines demonic possession from every angle.




Demonic Possessions in History


Book Description

Possession by a malevolent spirit sounds like a horrific nightmare or bizarre fiction, but history has certainly shown that it isn't such a far-fetched concept. The fear of these possessions stems from Christianity and other religions. They had treacherous repercussions, such as witch hunts in Europe and the United States, and attempted exorcisms. Murderers even used the guise of demonic possession as an excuse for their crimes. Readers poring through these engrossing, extensive accounts can decide for themselves what may have a ring of truth to it.







Proceedings


Book Description