The Case for Possession: Do the Dead Influence the Living?

In The Case for Possession Cynthia Pettiward suggests that depressed and psychotic states, both of mind and body, could sometimes be induced by agencies outside the psychological personality-structure. She believes that there are grounds for assuming that this hypothesis is worth studying. Her belief arises not only from the case-histories she has investigated but from personal experience and observation. Pettiward leaves aside the question of demonic possession, although she does not reject it; instead, she summarises some of the evidence pointing to possession by discarnate human entities - the 'earthbound' dead. In order to posit this thesis it is inevitable that belief in survival of bodily death be accepted, and Pettiward is as much concerned to bring forward the evidence for survival as to study the case for possession.