In the old days, Chuukese engaged in the practice of communicating with the spirits of deceased family members and relatives. They made offerings and prayed to nature spirits and the spirits of the dead. These practices slowly became passé when the islanders began embracing Christianity.
However, like other pagan cultures, the Chuukese culture still subscribes to spiritualism. Even in the modern age, superstitions linger in their culture.
They avoid walking alone in the woods at night. They shun sites believed to be haunted by spirits of the underworld.
Pregnant women are particularly cautious. According to old wives’ tales, entering places claimed to be habituated by sea spirits can cause miscarriage and other childbirth problems. The islanders use traditional medicine to ward off bad spirits. They also believe in love potions to win the affection of people they are attracted to.
Belief in spirit possession is another aspect of local culture that the Chuukese people share with other pagan societies.
Father Francis X. Hezel, SJ, a Catholic priest who has lived in Micronesia since 1963, wrote an article titled “Spirit Possession in Chuuk: A Socio-Cultural Interpretation.” The article published in 1992 in the Micronesian Seminar narrated accounts of “spirit possessions” in Chuuk.
In 1989, Cathy Hung, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Chuuk, assisted Hezel in collecting case reports of spirit possessions. Within two months, Hung collected 57 claims about spirit encounters. However, most of the stories gathered from interviews lacked rich details because they supposedly occurred a long time ago.
In Chuuk, there were several classifications of spirits, some were considered “powerful.” There were nature spirits who dwelled in the sea, sky, reef, lagoon, mountains, bushes, rocks and on land.
There were spirits of the dead. Chuukese people believed each person had dual spirits—the good and the bad. When a person died, his bad spirit would take the form of a fruit bat or other animals that attacked people, their bites causing temporary insanity.
The bad spirits stayed close to the grave and stalked people only at night because they were frightened off by the light. When a bad spirit caused a nuisance, a sorcerer would be called to drive the spirit back into the body of the dead.
The good spirits roamed freely. They gave blessings to the families they left, offered information about new medicines, and pointed the living to rich fishing grounds. If the good spirits were not treated well, they could curse families with illnesses much worse than the bad spirits would cause. There were claims about physical encounters with spirits and being bitten by ghosts.
Hezel wrote about an account involving a woman who spoke in the voice of her dead grandfather after having a seizure. The woman headed to the door to follow her grandfather. Her family tried to stop her, but she was strong and pushed everybody aside. Several men helped to finally restrain her. After a few hours, she was back to her normal self.
Another story involved a pregnant teen from a different island. One night, she was about to go to sleep when a stout man clutched at her dress and dragged her to the door. She fought the man desperately, screaming and resisting while her family members looked on. No one else saw the man except for the girl. The family called Hezel to assist. The girl delivered her baby shortly after.
“Possessed” individuals were believed to display unusual behaviors, such as babbling or spewing out vulgar words they would otherwise not say.
The Chuukese’s belief in spirit possession dates as far back as the late 19th century. Cultural researchers have written about a male spirit medium—sprayed with perfume—sitting in the lineage meeting house to contact the spirit of a dead person. During the ritual, the medium mumbled, moaned and breathed heavily before going into convulsions. The living relatives would start asking questions when the medium’s voice changed, convinced that he was possessed by the spirit of the dead loved one they summoned.
Hezel said living people resorted to this practice to inquire about the nature of a disease afflicting their families or to seek help in locating missing valuables. The practice continued after World War 11. Hezel said the islanders abandoned the practice in the early 1970s when they began embracing Christianity.
However, he said, Christianity did not erase the Chuukese’s belief in the powers of the spirits.
The concept of spirit possession has reemerged “to serve new purposes.” It became an outlet for women suffering from stress to voice their repressed grievances and an avenue to bring peace to the family. The supposedly possessed person uses the “voice of the spirit” to say things they would not normally dare say, bringing muted family tensions out in the open, which often results in a speedy reconciliation.
Raquel Bagnol is a longtime journalist. She worked as a reporter for Marianas Variety on Saipan and Island Times in Palau. Send feedback to gukdako@yahoo.com
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