#on possession

Abstraction could be and was applied to a host of other ambiguous “bodily signs” or possessed behaviors. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to state that there were two kinds of spirit possession in the Middle Ages, one malign and one benign, that were outwardly indistinguishable from one another. Both were attended by spectacular abilities: “Though miraculous abilities can be gifts that God bestows upon the faithful for the confirmation of the faith the revelation of the future, or gift of prophecy; the understanding of supernatural things, or gift of wisdom; and the understanding of human things, or gift of knowledge—nevertheless, similar things also can be, and are, accomplished by evil spirits.” This juxtaposition led to an epistemological conundrum for the medieval Church on both the local community level and the translocal, institutional level. How could one tell the difference between divine and demonic possession? The Adversary could so easily deceive the unwary. The demonic character delighted in deception: leading human beings into falsehood was understood to be a basic goal of the demonic hosts. Thus fears about hypocrisy and false sanctity were important currents in later medieval thought, and the ecclesiastical leadership of the time sought to disseminate these concerns among the broader population. One should not reflexively venerate anyone who appears to be saintly, but exercise caution.

to clarify a point on the previous post, i think part of the necessity of the consent is that the soul is the only thing that really belongs to a person and so the angel needs permission to anchor to that. not so with bodies. or demons.

sometimes i do be thinking about the whole sam and dean as lucifer and michael's perfect vessels thang. like an angel could take possession of anyone with consent and the physical form binds their energy in such a way that leaves them vulnerable to injury, which i suppose is part of the reason lucifer/michael require vessels so as one can actually destroy the other, hence dean being called a "sword". but you could do that with any body i don't think their power would be limited by the vessel's human strength because like... the weakest angel is probably many times stronger than the strongest man.