If you build it, he will come.
—Field of Dreams
In the film Field of Dreams, the hero sees a baseball diamond and hears, “If you build it, he will come.” Not only does the baseball diamond attract the spirit of Ray's father, it brings the spirits of great ballplayers of the past. If instead of a baseball field we build a dancing floor for the gods, They too will come.
In part two of this book you developed your relationship with the Powers and your ability to hear them. On the principle that before you invite the dancers you must first build the ballroom, while you continue to strengthen these skills you can create and train a community to welcome the Powers when you, and They, are ready for Them to arrive. If your tradition already includes possessory trance, the material that follows will help you to place your practice in a wider cultural context.
It has taken first world scholars a long time to accept that in a traditional setting, possessory practice can play a healthy and useful role. In recent years, psychologists have wondered about the relationship between possession and personality or identity disorders.. In her comparison of multiple personality disorder and possession, Deborah Golub identifies a number of differences between a dissociative disorder and the way possession works in traditional cultures. In these cultures, possessory trance is considered normal, healing, and resocializing rather than pathological. The ability to go into trance is encouraged. The medium is well adjusted in everyday life and the spirits only appear within a formal ritual context. The spirits themselves are viewed as separate beings who belong to the culture and act in characteristic ways. Possession occurs within a ritual context, in which the spirit is formally invited. When possession takes place within the parameters of the culture it is not considered pathological. Treatment or healing is required only when possession occurs in uncontrolled ways, and any uninvited or recalcitrant spirits respond to traditional methods for expulsion. Repeated possessions in a ritual space may be part of a cure (Golub 1995, 299–302).
What does a possessory ritual look like? Who gets involved, and what do they do? What role do possessory traditions play in their parent cultures? In the chapters that follow, we will be examining possession in a variety of settings to identify principles and practices that we can use as a guide.