page_title: Haitian Vodou
section_title: Spirit possession
hierarchical_section_title: Haitian Vodou / Practices / The Dans / Spirit possession
caption_attribution_description: English: This photograph shows Master Drummer Frisner Augustin playing for a Haitian Vodou dance in a Brooklyn, New York, basement in the early 1980s.
context_page_description: Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between the traditional religions of West Africa and Roman Catholicism. Adherents are known as Vodouists or "servants of the spirits".
  Vodou focuses on the veneration of deities known as lwa. These are often identified both as Yoruba gods as well as Roman Catholic saints. Various myths and stories are told about these lwa, which are regarded as subservient to a transcendent creator deity, Bondyé. An initiatory tradition, Vodouists usually meet in ounfò, temples run by priests known as oungans or priestesses known as manbos, to venerate the lwa. A central ritual involves practitioners drumming, singing, and dancing to encourage a lwa to possess one of their members. They believe that through this possessed individual, they can communicate directly with a lwa. Offerings to the lwa include fruit and the blood of sacrificed animals. Several forms of divination are utilized to decipher messages from the lwa. Healing rituals and the preparation of herbal remedies, amulets, and charms, also play a prominent role.
context_section_description: Spirit possession constitutes an important element of Haitian Vodou, and is at the heart of many of its rituals. Vodouists believe that the lwa renews itself by drawing on the vitality of the people taking part in the dance.
  Vodou teaches that a lwa can possess an individual regardless of gender; both male and female lwa are capable of possessing either men or women. Although the specific drums and songs being used as designed to encourage a specific lwa to possess someone, sometimes an unexpected lwa appears and takes possession instead.
  The person being possessed is referred to as the chwal or chual (horse); the act of possession is called "mounting a horse". 
  The trance of possession is known as the crise de lwa. Vodou practitioners believe that during this process, the lwa enters the head of the possessed individual and displaces their gwo bon anj (consciousness). This displacement is believed to generate the trembling and convulsions that the chwal undergoes as they become possessed; Maya Deren described a look of "anguish, ordeal and blind terror" on the faces of those as they became possessed. Because their consciousness has been removed from their head during the possession, Vodouists believe that the chwal will have no memory of what occurs during the incident. The length of the possession varies, often lasting a few hours but in some instances several days. It may end with the chwal collapsing in a semi-conscious state. The possessed individual is typically left physically exhausted by the experience. Some individuals attending the dance will put a certain item, often wax, in their hair or headgear to prevent possession.
  Once the lwa appears and possesses an individual, it is greeted by a burst of song and dance by the congregation. The chwal is often escorted into an adjacent room where they are dressed in clothing associated with the possessing lwa. Alternatively, the clothes are brought out and they are dressed in the peristil itself. These costumes and props help the chwal take on the appearance of the lwa. Many ounfo have a large wooden phallus on hand which is used by those possessed by Gede lwa during their dances. Once the chwal has been dressed, congregants kiss the floor before them. The chwal will also typically bow before the officiating priest or priestess and prostrate before the poto mitan. The chwal will often then join in with the dances, dancing with anyone whom they wish to, or sometimes eating and drinking. Their performance can be very theatrical.
  The behaviour of the possessed is informed by the lwa possessing them as the chwal takes on the associated behaviour and expressions of that particular lwa. Those believing themselves possessed by Danbala the serpent for instance often slither on the floor, darting out their tongue, and climb the posts of the peristil. Those possessed by Zaka, lwa of agriculture, will be dressed as a peasant in a straw hat with a clay pipe and will often speak in a rustic accent. Sometimes the lwa, through the chwal, will engage in financial transactions with members of the congregation, for instance by selling them food that has been given as an offering or lending them money. It is believed that in some instances a succession of lwa can possess the same individual, one after the other.
  Possession facilitates direct communication between the lwa and its followers; through the chwal, the lwa communicates with their devotees, offering counsel, chastisement, blessings, warnings about the future, and healing. Lwa possession has a healing function in Vodou, with the possessed individual expected to reveal possible cures to the ailments of those assembled. Any clothing that the chwal touches is regarded as bringing luck. The lwa may also offer advice to the individual they are possessing; because the latter is not believed to retain any memory of the events, it is expected that other members of the congregation will pass along the lwa's message at a later point. In some instances, practitioners have reported being possessed at other times of ordinary life, such as when
caption: A drummer in a Vodou ceremony in Brooklyn, New York City during the early 1980s
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