possession

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n.

1. 1. The act or fact of possessing.
   2. The state of being possessed.
2. Something owned or possessed.
3. possessions Wealth or property.
4. Law. Actual holding or occupancy with or without rightful ownership.
5. A territory subject to foreign control.
6. Self-control.
7. The state of being dominated by or as if by evil spirits or by an obsession.
8. Sports.
   1. Physical control of the ball or puck by a player or team.
   2. The condition of being on offense: The home team was in possession during most of the fourth quarter.

possessional pos·ses'sion·al adj.

The ownership or control of information, as distinct from confidentiality. For example, if confidential information such as a user ID-password combination is in a sealed container and the container is stolen, the owner justifiably feels that there has been a breach of security even if the container remains closed (this is a breach of possession or control over the information). Possession is one of the six fundamental components of information security (see Parkerian Hexad).

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Having, holding, or detaining Property in one's control. When compared with mere Custody, possession involves custody plus the assertion of a right to exercise dominion.

The holding, control, or custody of property for one's use, either as owner or person with another right. See alsoOwnership Rights to Realty, Title.
Examples: Actual possession: within immediate occupancy

Adverse possession: see definition

Constructive possession: as stated in the public record

The altered state of consciousness known as ‘possession’ has been, and remains, extraordinarily widespread in societies and cultures across the globe. Typically it involves the occupation of human beings (although animals, too, can be possessed) by spirits who act and speak ‘through’ their hosts' minds and bodies. Instances abound of powers, deities, devils, or ancestors possessing the living in this way, and of ritual and ceremonial procedures for identifying them, communicating with them, interpreting their pronouncements and demands, and getting them to depart. In many cases, possession is associated with cults and occupies a highly significant place in the life of a culture or community — as it does, for example, in the Haitian folk religion of vodou. Hosts come to have a privileged social position as spirit mediums and often acquire therapeutic and other thaumaturgical powers. In these circumstances, spirit possession may be a highly desirable and voluntary experience and bring all sorts of communal benefits.

In the past, anthropologists have viewed such benefits in social-functionalist terms, interpreting possession as a form of conflict resolution, as a means for absorbing innovative forces or deviant persons into familiar frameworks, and as a way of enhancing the status of deprived or marginal groups and individuals. A much-discussed suggestion is that possession is a strategy for redressing the frustrated ambitions of female hosts, who otherwise experience only subservience and affliction. Alternatively, possession has been seen in terms of the psychodynamics of intrapsychic tensions and multiple personality disorders, as well as the physiology and epidemiology of trance states. More recently, the tendency has been to read possession for its symbolic meanings and its importance as a cultural resource and as learned behaviour. Here the stress is on the beliefs and values that support it, the codes and conventions in terms of which it is structured and modelled, and the opportunities it provides for communication between the spirit and human worlds and for negotiating questions of identity and selfhood.

In Christianity, possession has usually meant involuntary occupation of the body by the forces of evil. Possessing devils and other ‘unclean spirits’ were frequently the subject of Christ's own miracles, and the power to cast them out was devolved on his disciplies and their followers (Matthew 10: 1; Mark 16: 17). This made exorcism simultaneously a much sought-after therapy and a powerful means of religious propaganda, since the true Church was defined and marked out by its successful use of the exorcistic powers proffered in the gospels as legitimating signs. It has been said that exorcism lay at the heart of the early Christian communities, and it featured prominently in medieval hagiography as the occasion for victories over devils by saints, either personally or at their shrines. Thereafter, formal rituals of exorcism were adopted by the Church throughout the medieval centuries.

When, on the other hand, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations brought deep religious division to Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, exorcism naturally became contested. At the same time, demonic possession increased dramatically, probably because demonism in general and witchcraft in particular were preoccupations of the age. Northern Germany was particularly affected, with possessions becoming almost epidemic after about 1560, but cases are recorded from all over Europe, with female ‘demoniacs’ predominant. France in particular became notorious for the collective possession and exorcism of entire communities of nuns — notably at Loudun in 1634 and at Louviers in 1643-7. There was even a ministry of exorcists in Rome, and most Catholic clergymen were expected to free demoniacs of their devils by performing either the official Roman ritual or one of the many unofficial exorcisms that circulated in Catholic Europe. In this respect the Protestant clergy were at a disadvantage; they attacked Catholic possessions as fakes and the Catholic ritual of exorcism as a form of magic, but their own parishioners were just as likely to demand help for the same affliction. Eventually, possession again became a powerful propaganda weapon, with Catholic priests urging devils to make anti-Protestant statements and driving them out of their hosts by using Catholic sacraments — above all, the Mass. This often happened in front of substantial crowds and with a good deal of ecclesiastical drama, as in the cases of Nicole Obry at Laon in Picardy in 1565-6 and of Laurent Boissonet and others at Soissons in 1582. In effect, the early modern possessed became sites of confrontation, ostensibly between devils and exorcists but also between different churches.

In addition to these high-profile occasions, ordinary men and women would often become possessed and be diagnosed as demoniacs by their own families or by local village healers. Countryside exorcists were much in demand throughout Europe. The case-notes of the seventeenth-century English astrological physician Richard Napier mention patients of his who attributed ‘troubles of mind’, temptations, suicidal thoughts, religious anxieties, and hallucinations all to possession. The more spectacular symptoms of the condition, as established by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century physicians and theologians, included wild physical contortions, superhuman strength, speaking in unknown languages, and reacting adversely to holy words and objects. Possessed individuals often took advantage of their situation to blaspheme or behave in shockingly immoral fashion. Generally, they were not regarded as guilty of any sin or crime but as innocent victims of demonic attack; however, in several cases demoniacs did claim that they had been possessed as the result of witchcraft. This happened notably in 1692 at Salem, where the famous witchcraft trials and executions originated in the possession of a group of young and adolescent girls.

The principle that devils might inhabit humans was not abandoned by a substantial portion of the literate classes of Europe, including the medical profession, until the eighteenth century and beyond. In 1737 Isaac Newton's successor at Cambridge, William Whiston, was still saying that possession was as reliable a phenomenon in nature as gravity. But the seventeenth century was marked by considerable controversy surrounding the subject, with some physicians already arguing for a purely pathological, non-demonic explanation of the symptons and others suggesting that many cases were fraudulent — as indeed they were. Thus, Sir Thomas Browne, writing in 1646, allowed that ‘the devil doth really possess some men; the spirit of melancholy others; the spirit of delusion other.’ In modern times, disease and deception have naturally become the preferred categories for possession in the West, although exorcism is still available as part of the Catholic Church's rituals. During the nineteenth century a favoured approach — adopted particularly by the pioneers of French psychiatry, Louis Calmeil and Jean-Martin Charcot — was to assimilate possession naturalistically to hysteria, and this too has become a common theme in the recent historiography of the subject. Meanwhile, speaking in tongues and other more positive aspects of possession have become features of Pentecostalism and other forms of charismatic religion, notably in America.

— Stuart Clark

Bibliography

• Bourguignon, E. (1976). Possession. Chandler and Sharp Publishers, San Francisco.
• Walker, D. P. (1981). Unclean spirits: possession and exorcism in France and England in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Scolar Press, London

See also witchcraft.

noun

1. The fact of possessing or the legal right to possess something: dominion, ownership, proprietorship, title. See owned/unowned.
2. One's portable property. belonging (often used in plural), effect (used in plural), good (used in plural), lares and penates, personal effects, personal property, property, thing (often used in plural). Informal stuff. Law chattel, movable (often used in plural). See owned/unowned.
3. Something, as land and assets, legally possessed. estate, holding (often used in plural), property. See law, owned/unowned.
4. An area subject to rule by an outside power: colony, dependency, province, territory. See politics.

n

Definition: control, ownership
Antonyms: lack, need, want

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n

The control or custody of anything that may be the subject of property as owner or as one who has a qualified right in it.

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

The ownership, control, or occupancy of a thing, most frequently land or personal property, by a person.

The United States Supreme Court has said that "there is no word more ambiguous in its meaning than possession" (National Safe Deposit Co. v. Stead, 232 U.S. 58, 34 S. Ct. 209, 58 L. Ed. 504 [1914]). Depending on how and when it is used, the term possession has a variety of possible meanings. As a result, possession, or lack of possession, is often the subject of controversy in civil cases involving real and personal property and criminal cases involving drugs and weapons — for example, whether a renter is entitled to possession of an apartment or whether a criminal suspect is in possession of stolen property.

The idea of possession is as old as the related concepts of private property and ownership. Our modern possession laws originated in the ancient Roman doctrines of possessio. English natural law inherited most of the Roman possession ideas, and later the British brought their law of possession to the American colonies. Following the War of Independence, state and federal courts continued to use and expand upon the historical notions of possession.

Possession versus Ownership

Although the two terms are often confused, possession is not the same as ownership. No legal rule states that "possession is nine-tenths of the law," but this phrase is often used to suggest that someone who possesses an object is most likely its owner. Likewise, people often speak of the things they own, such as clothes and dishes, as their possessions. However, the owner of an object may not always possess the object. For example, an owner of a car could lend it to someone else to drive. That driver would then possess the car. However, the owner does not give up ownership simply by lending the car to someone else.

The myriad distinctions between possession and ownership, and the many nuances of possession, are complicated even for attorneys and judges. To avoid confusion over exactly what is meant by possession, the word is frequently modified by adding a term describing the type of possession. For example, possession may be actual, adverse, conscious, constructive, exclusive, illegal, joint, legal, physical, sole, superficial, or any one of several other types. Many times these modifiers are combined, as in "joint constructive possession." All these different kinds of possession, however, originate from what the law calls "actual possession."

Actual Possession

"Actual possession is what most of us think of as possession — that is, having physical custody or control of an object" (United States v. Nenadich, 689 F.Supp. 285 [S.D. N.Y. 1988]). Actual possession, also sometimes called possession in fact, is used to describe immediate physical contact. For example, a person wearing a watch has actual possession of the watch. Likewise, if you have your wallet in your jacket pocket, you have actual possession of your wallet. This type of possession, however, is by necessity very limited. Frequently, a set of facts clearly indicate that an individual has possession of an object but that he or she has no physical contact with it. To properly deal with these situations, courts have broadened the scope of possession beyond actual possession.

Constructive Possession

Constructive possession is a legal theory used to extend possession to situations where a person has no hands-on custody of an object. Most courts say that constructive possession, also sometimes called "possession in law," exists where a person has knowledge of an object plus the ability to control the object, even if the person has no physical contact with it (United States v. Derose, 74 F.3d 1177 [11th Cir. 1996]). For example, people often keep important papers and other valuable items in a bank safety deposit box. Although they do not have actual physical custody of these items, they do have knowledge of the items and the ability to exercise control over them. Thus, under the doctrine of constructive possession, they are still considered in possession of the contents of their safety deposit box. Constructive possession is frequently used in cases involving criminal possession.

Criminal Possession

Both federal and state statutes make possession of many dangerous or undesirable items criminal. For example, the federal statute 26 U.S.C.A. § 5861 (1996) prohibits possession of certain firearms and other weapons. Likewise, the possession of other items considered harmful to the public, such as narcotics, burglary tools, and stolen property, is also made criminal under various laws. Criminal possession, especially of drugs, has been a major source of controversy. Making possession a crime allows for arrests and convictions without proving the use or sale of a prohibited item.

Historically, actual possession was required for a criminal possession conviction. Beginning in the 1920s, however, courts began expanding criminal possession to include constructive possession. The federal prohibition of intoxicating liquors spawned several cases involving criminal possession. In one of the first criminal cases to use constructive possession, the court found a defendant guilty of possessing illegal liquor in trunks in the actual possession of another person (People v. Vander Heide, 211 Mich. 1, 178 N.W. 78 [1920]). Subsequent cases, especially narcotics cases, have continued to expand the law of criminal possession.

Possession and Intent

In civil cases intent is rarely a part of possession. However, in criminal cases possession usually requires conscious possession. In other words, the person must be conscious of the fact that the item is illegal and that he or she possesses it. A person with possession of illegal drugs may avoid conviction if he or she believed the drugs were legal. Generally, to be guilty of criminal possession, a person must either know the item is illegal when it is received or must keep possession of the object after learning it is illegal.

See: adverse possession; drugs and narcotics.

An altered state of consciousness in which the conscious personality of the individual is replaced with that of another personality, commonly thought of as a possessing spirit entity. Possession is a phenomenon common to all religious traditions but some traditions have a greater focus upon it. For example, many of the Afro-Cuban religions (Voudou, Santeria, Macumba) can be described as possession religions, and the being possessed by the deity is central to worship in these groups.

In the Christian West, possession, with rare exceptions, has been viewed as a negative phenomena. Taking the lead from New Testament examples in which several people are described as possessed by demons and are healed by Jesus, Christian leaders have largely equated possession with possession by a demonic force, or even the devil himself.

The negative evaluation of possession in the West has been reinforced by the development of secular worldviews that champion the autonomous individual, the maker of choices. Such worldviews emerged in the nineteenth century from European encounters with what were deemed "primitive" cultures with possession-oriented beliefs and practices, and by the spread of the practice of hypnotism, in which people could seemingly be made to do things that they would not or could not do if conscious. More recently, in this century, negative views of possession have been reinforced as a by-product of contemporary psychological exploration of the phenomena of multiple personalities, in which a secondary personality of the individual comes forward, usually as a result of extreme trauma.

Spiritualism

Spiritualism emerged as a possession-oriented religion in the mid-nineteenth century. In Spiritualist mediumship, and its contemporary derivations such as New Age channeling, possession is a developed form of motor automatism in which the personality of the automatist is substituted by another, usually by as a discarnate spirit. The possessing personality aims to establish communication with this world through the organism of the entranced medium, by writing or speech.

The incipient stage of possession is personation, during which the medium's own personality is still in the body but is assuming the characteristics of someone departed. The next stage is partial possession, the excitation of the medium's motor or sensory centers by a discarnate agent either through the subconscious self or in some direct way. F. W. H. Myers suggested the word "telergic" as a correlative to telepathic for such action.

Full possession postulates the vacation of the organism by the medium to allow the entrance of another spirit. Alternating personalities offer the first suggestion of the possibility of possession. An arbitrary personality may possess the organism of the hypnotic subject at the hypnotizer's suggestion. Secondary personalities are often hostile and antagonistic to the primary one.

Traveling clairvoyance in dream states points to the wandering of the spirit while the body is asleep. Cases of religious ecstasy in which an excursion is made into the spiritual world furnish another instance of the temporary separation of body and soul. Once we admit the possibility of the soul leaving the body, we have to admit the possibility of another spirit entering it.

Whether possession actually takes place or whether a secondary personality speaks through the organism is a question of evidence. Such evidence has to be furnished by the nature and content of the communications. The testimony of the medium is usually not available, as she or he often does not remember what happened.

Swedish seer Emanuel Swedenborg remembered his excursions into the spiritual world, but in his case there was no possession. The subjects of Alphonse Cahagnet described heavenly visions in trance, but there was not enough evidence to rule out the possibility that even when evidential communications from discarnate spirits were produced, they did not come from the subconscious self alone. If no new knowledge is shown in the trance state, there is no reason to ascribe the communication to an external intelligence. The character of the communicator alone does not furnish convincing proof.

The medium Leonora Piper never remembered her visions of the spiritual world and, the fragmentary utterances during her passing from trance to waking life aside, she was the tool for the writing and utterances of "alien entities".

Paranormal knowledge the medium could not have acquired is an indispensable condition for proving the presence of an external spirit. It is believed incoherence in the communicator does not militate against possession. It is rather in favor of it. If the spirit of the medium vacates the body, his or her brain will be left behind in a dreamlike state. To control such a brain and to make it obey the will of the communicator may not only be an enervating process, but full of pitfalls and possibilities of confusion.

Possession and Psychical Research

Taken as a phenomenon, possession presents one of the central mysteries of human life. It involves a mind using a brain. Possession is always temporary and implies a surrender of the body on the part of the medium. If possession takes place against the will of the medium and endures in the waking state, the phenomenon is called obsession.

The possibility of an instrumental test of possession was first suggested by W. Whateley Carrington. He advised the use of a galvanometer, which measured the emotional reactions of the medium to a certain set of questions. The different controls, if they are different personalities, should exhibit different emotional reactions to the same questions. It was by such tests that the independence of the controls of the medium Eileen Garrett was established at Johns Hopkins University and the New York Psychical Institute in 1933.

IN BRIEF: Something that one owns. Also: Territory ruled by an outside country.

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul. — Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Quotes:

"Why grab possessions like thieves, or divide them like socialists when you can ignore them like wise men?" - Natalie Clifford Barney

"To the illumined man or woman, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same." - Bhagavad Gita

"Less is more." - Robert Browning

"The best things in life aren't things." - Art Buchwald

"Americans are uneasy with their possessions, guilty about power, all of which is difficult for Europeans to perceive because they are themselves so truly materialistic, so versed in the uses of power." - Joan Didion

"The more we have the less we own." - Meister Eckhart

See more famous quotes about Possessions

In ancient times, demonic possession was blamed for everything from bad behavior in young children to nightmares to full-blown multiple personality disorders. When a person manifested certain unpleasant personality traits, many ancient societies associated this with possession by devils, demons, or spirits. The possessed individual is in a nightmarish threshold state. Traditionally, the appropriate "therapy" was some form of exorcism directed at freeing the individual of the intruding entity.

In later times some believed that real creativity depended on a state of possession or "divine insanity," which gave people access to the subconscious in a liminal state. When a person is able to readily enter a liminal state, he or she potentially has access to the more creative faculties of the brain. Those who can do this at will are usually highly charismatic people with thin barriers between their conscious and unconscious minds.

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Common misspelling(s) of possession

• possesion
• posession

Dansk (Danish)
n. - eje, overtagelse

idioms:

• in possession    i besiddelse
• in possession of    i besiddelse af
• possession order    besiddelsesrækkefølge
• take possession    tage i besiddelse

Nederlands (Dutch)
bezit, bezetenheid, gebied onder beheer van een ander land, bezetting, beheersing

Français (French)
n. - (Jur) détention, (Jur) jouissance/possession, (Sport) contrôle (du ballon), possession (coloniale)

idioms:

• in possession of    en possession de
• possession order    ordonnance de retour en possession
• take possession    prendre possession

Deutsch (German)
n. - Besitz, Besitzungen

idioms:

• in possession of    im Besitz von
• possession order    Gerichtsverfügung, einen Besitz an den Eigentümer zu übergeben
• take possession    einnehmen, besetzen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κτήση, κτήμα (αυτό που αποκτήθηκε), κατοχή, νομή, κυριότητα, (πληθ.) υπάρχοντα, περιουσία

idioms:

• in possession    φέρων (π.χ. ναρκωτικά)
• in possession of    στην κατοχή του..
• possession order    έξωση
• take possession    εγκαθίσταμαι, γίνομαι κάτοχος

Italiano (Italian)
possesso, ossessione

idioms:

• in possession    in possesso
• in possession of    in possesso di
• possession order    decreto di possesso
• take possession    prendere possesso

Português (Portuguese)
n. - possessão (f), bens (m pl)

idioms:

• in possession    em posse de
• in possession of    sob posse de
• possession order    alvará de posse
• take possession    tomar posse

Русский (Russian)
владение, одержимость, обладание

idioms:

• in possession    в (чьих-либо) руках
• in possession of    обладать
• possession order    ордер на возвращение собственности
• take possession    завладеть

Español (Spanish)
n. - posesión, bienes, propiedad, tenencia, obsesión

idioms:

• in possession of    en posesión de
• possession order    orden judicial para tomar posesión de
• take possession    tomar posesión de

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - innehav, besittning, ägande, egendom, besatthet, självbehärskning

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
拥有, 所有物, 占有, 财产

idioms:

• in possession    持有
• in possession of    拥有
• possession order    占有决议
• take possession    取得所有权, 吞占

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 擁有, 所有物, 佔有, 財產

idioms:

• in possession    持有
• in possession of    擁有
• possession order    占有決議
• take possession    取得所有權, 吞占

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 소유, 입수, 소유물

idioms:

• in possession    점유되어
• in possession of    소유[점령, 점유] 하고 있다
• take possession    ~을 압수하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 所有, 占有, 占領, 所有物, 財産, 魅入られていること, こびりついた感情

idioms:

• in possession    所有している
• in possession of    所有している
• possession order    所有順位
• take possession    位置を占める

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تملك, امتلاك, حيازة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חזקה, החזקה, שליטה, בעלות, מושבה, אחיזת דיבוק, רכוש, נכסים‬

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