Neighbours hold up the body until the Spirit eventually subsides and returns it to its original possessor. When I first came to Jamaica, I was nonplussed by a situation not covered in the rubrics for the mass, and felt the sort of embarrassment that comes when someone else has committed a social gaffe. After all, self-control is a good thing. I cringe at the thought of the humiliation I would feel should the Spirit decide to bring me down with spasms and shouts. I have been spared so far, but by now have become so accustomed to the event that, if a month of Sundays passes with nobody going down, I start to worry that the mass is becoming too boring.
Caribbean anthropologists identify spirit possession as a survival of an African style of religion.
Catholic churches regularly hold Crusades where, untrammeled by liturgical rubrics, a congregation can give full vent to singing, dancing and bringing down the Spirit. Indeed, I would be willing to go much further on the Revivalist route and add bottles of water and grapefruits to draw down the spirits, were not the congregants too well schooled in past ecclesiastical rigidities. But it does feel somehow politically incorrect to encourage this type of charismatic religion. After all, there is no surer evidence of religion being the opiate of the people than religious experience looking like a bad trip. But I suppose the Spirit blows where it will.