Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/202

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184
OCCULT JAPAN.

petuated unintentionally, as the Salpétrière did with those it first innocently induced in its hypnotic patients, and then as innocently marveled at afterward. Some symptoms, nevertheless, are quite universal—those connected with the gohei-wand. The way in which this is treated is common to pure Shintō, Ryōbu-Shintō, and Buddhist performance alike, the action only differing in degree. On the other hand, the tying up of the legs of the entranced is essentially a Ryōbu practice, not being a detail of the higher forms of pure Shintō possession nor of that of the women subjects of the Buddhists.

Shamming is not so important a matter as it might seem, because of its ease of detection. Shams there are, of course, which is scarcely surprising when we consider the great vogue the act of possession enjoys. But such are easily exploded. An unexpected pin in a tender part of the possessed's body instantly does the business. For a god is sublimely superior to being made a pin-cushion of, while a mere man invariably objects to it. The difficulty, indeed, lies not in detecting the counterfeit but in failing to