Socrates Sacred Disease

454 Words2 Pages

Conclusively, the fear of the spirit world took on a different intensity when the diverse scholars and philosophers began to exalt possession; encouraging its presence in order to experience the divine truth of the gods. A range of philosophers and writers such as Homer, Socrates, Plato, and others, acquires an obsessive passion to connect with the gods, allowing the spirits of lust to possess people with ‘sacred disease.’ Pan became one of the foremost gods that receives a long legacy for possession; reportedly his existence predates to the earliest of times, occurring in the Orphic Hymns, (some believing the hymns, go back at least 10,000 years) where the term ‘religious gives a sense of one whom the god Pan possesses.’ Although early on possession by the gods exists as a sacred disease or a divine frenzy; nevertheless, Hippocrates wrote in 400 B.C. that the occupancy of a ‘sacred disease,’ predominantly exists no more sacred than other disease. He surmises this state of being develops from natural causes, similar to other infections and that …show more content…

(Presently, doctors that use to believe that evil possession occurs as a problem brought on by a person’s mental or physical incapability’s, happens to be losing its validity. For anthropologists, psychologically oriented scholars of religion, and psychological studies, attest that demonic possession consists of nothing to do with a person’s mental or physical state before the possession; (As epilepsy is now thought to have nothing to do with evil possession.) Their research concludes the majority of people to be in perfect physical and psychological health before an evil possession takes place. Nevertheless, among the numerous beliefs that haunt societies, Pan’s ability still affects people through panic, and demonic possession, appearing in cultures globally and taught by a number of medical doctors.