Luc de Heusch has sought to distinguish between these two phases in terms of a much more thorough-going and wide-reaching distinction between what he calls 'inauthentic' and 'authentic' possession. The first of these he sees as an undesired illness, a baneful spirit intrusion, which can only be treated by the expulsion, or exorcism, of the intrusive agency. The second, in contrast, is the very stuff of religious experience: a 'joyous Dionysian epiphany'. This desired state of exaltation is realized by what is in effect a 'sacred theater'. Thus for de Heusch, these are not merely separate phases, as I have distinguished them, within the assumption of the mystical calling; but on the contrary, totally opposed experiences belonging to two separate types of cult. In his view the first cult is based on exorcism, the second on the deliberate cultivation of ecstatic states. Eric Bourguignon, who in contrast realizes correctly that these are not necessarily totally opposed experiences characteristic of different kinds of religious cult, calls them 'negative' and 'positive' possession (Bourguignon, 1967). I prefer the more neutral analytical terms 'uncontrolled' and 'controlled' possession, or 'unsolicited' and 'solicited' possession which, as I hope will become increasingly clear, have greater explanatory utility.
Ecstatic Religion: an Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism by I.M. Lewis
