Manuale Exorcistarum

§ 47. De Adstantia — Of Attendance.

It is here treated of that condition by which an unclean spirit is in a soul not as a tenant in a house (so the technical phrase, in habitatione) but as a witness in a courtroom (in adstantia). The distinction is ancient and is properly maintained, for the conduct of the exorcist with respect to adstantia differeth in kind, not merely in degree, from his conduct with respect to habitatio.

For in habitatione, the subject acteth as the spirit willeth: the spirit speaketh through the subject’s mouth, useth the subject’s hands, and disposeth of the subject’s body as a man disposeth of his own coat. In adstantia, contrariwise, the subject acteth as the subject willeth — but is observed; and the observation, though silent and invisible to the natural eye, is sufficient to alter the subject’s manner in seven principal respects, the catalogue of which followeth.

§ 47.i. The Seven Signs of Attendance.

1. The persistent sense of being looked upon from behind — even in those rooms which possess no behind. The subject, on being asked, will report the sensation by gesture before by speech.
2. A curiously elevated awareness of one’s own continence and bowel function, attended in some by a corresponding shame, in others by a corresponding insolence, and in a small minority by both at once.
3. The inability to lie convincingly, not from any growth in moral scruple but from a strong impression that the lie is being independently fact-checked while the subject is in the act of speaking it.
4. Vivid memories of events the subject did not attend, particularly events at which they would have been notably out of place.
5. The unconscious habit of leaving doors slightly ajar, which the subject does not recall doing and will, on being shown, deny.
6. The recurring suspicion that one’s belongings have been moved — not stolen, only moved — by an inch or two, and returned with a small dust-disturbance to suggest that the mover had not in fact intended to be subtle.
7. (Diagnostically definitive.) The conviction, on waking, that someone has read the contents of one’s dreams during the night and made, in the margin, a small annotation. The annotation itself is never recoverable. The conviction, however, is permanent.

§ 47.ii. Of Treatment.

It is here gravely to be said that no treatment is known. The exorcist is forbidden to attempt expulsion (expulsio), for the entity is not, in the proper sense, present; he is forbidden to attempt binding (obligatio), for the entity is not, in the proper sense, free; he is forbidden to attempt negotiation (pactio), for the entity is not, in any sense whatsoever, listening. The exorcist is instructed to do what every parish priest does in the face of conditions he cannot remedy: he is instructed to record, to comfort, and to live to the best of his ability with the awareness that he, too, is now attended.

§ 47.iii. Final Cautions.

It is not to be presumed that the exorcist, by virtue of his vocation, is immune. The seven signs are reported among the clergy at approximately twice the rate at which they are reported among the laity. This is not a defect in our profession. It is, in the present author’s reluctant view, a recommendation.