Egregoric Possession

What it Actually Means to be Possessed

Everyone is familiar with the concept of demonic possession. But what does it actually mean to be possessed? In pop culture it is depicted suddenly and explosively. A malevolent spirit leaps into a body, immediately taking control of the flesh and lashing out with its dark will. And while this is certainly dramatic and exciting for the purposes of storytelling it is also a total fantasy.

However, I do believe that under my panpsychist framework of the nature of consciousness, possession, both Demonic and otherwise, is in fact a real phenomenon, though it is a very different process altogether. Rather than the explosive intrusion of a hostile entity, it is a much more gradual process. It is not the act of having one’s body acutely stripped from one’s control, but rather a grinding, methodical process by which the higher order conscious Egregores that we attend to, as described previously in “Systemic Organisms” and “The Psychic Predator,” come to embody themselves in us, gradually replacing the essence of the person that was with the character of these superordinate networked consciousnesses. And it is in this process of becoming a mirror of the higher order Egregore that one ultimately comes to be possessed.

To quickly recap what is meant by the “Systemic Organism” and an “Egregore,” the Systemic Organism is the independent entity that emerges as a product of networked human activity. Under my panpsychist understanding of reality, consciousness is a fundamental property of all being, where conscious experience is a product of networked information. Thus, the most fundamental unit of consciousness in reality might be something like an entangled quark pair, experiencing a kind of “proto-consciousness,” and more complex networks like the activity within the human brain produce a higher order consciousness with a more rich experience of being associated with that network. But as I described in “Emergent Minds,” there is no reason to believe that the network in the human brain is the limit of the process. Rather, networked human activity produces a higher order conscious life form in its own right, which is necessarily a superordinate consciousness by virtue of the fact it is a product of all the individual human minds that constitute the network. This is the Systemic Organism. The higher order life form with an independent consciousness and will born from human networks, where the human individual comes to take on a role more akin to a cell within the Systemic Organism’s body.

Similarly, the Egregore is conventionally an occult term referring to a “thoughtform.” A kind of conscious entity born as a product of channeled conscious energy from a group of occult practitioners. I have modified the term to more loosely refer to the consciousness of the Systemic Organism. It is the higher order conscious being that emerges from networked human activity. This can be a consequence of both deliberate, organized human networks, such as a corporation or bureaucratic agency, or more informal networks like human nations (i.e. the National Egregore), or, as I described in “The Psychic Predator,” the Porn Industry and its consumers.

So this describes the basic definition of the Systemic Organism, and its consciousness as manifested as an Egregore, but to answer the question of possession we will need to evaluate the actual relationship between the human, and the Egregore born from the networks that human participates in.

The relationship between a human and an Egregore that human participates in is a two-way street. When I participate in a network of any kind, I am to some degree shaping that network and its nature. When I work for a company, my actions contribute to the overall behavior of that Systemic Organism. When I process a form, submit it by email, and then action is taken based on the contents of that form, what I am actually doing in the context of the Systemic Organism is functionally receiving information, transmitting that information to the network (in this case using photonic transmitters, the typical analog for the neurotransmitter in the modern evolution of the Systemic Organism) and then direct action is taken by the Systemic Organism in response to that signal (perhaps an order is shipped). In this, my actions quite literally physically move the Systemic Organism. I receive information, convert that to a signal, and that signal yields a physical consequence in material space. The Egregore is thus embodied physically in me, my colleagues, and the material infrastructure of the corporate enterprise.

But the inverse is also true. If I am on the receiving end of that signal, and am tasked with boxing up the package and shipping it, then the Egregore is governing me and my actions. I am compelled by the signal I’ve received to go forward and complete the task assigned to me by the Egregore. In this very basic example we can see that my behavior is shaped by this network. And in complying, in that moment my being is superseded by the will of the Egregore. I don’t want to pack and ship the box, but the Egregore wants me to, and so I do.

“This is just having a job.” Yes, however my point is merely to provide a basic example for how the Egregore’s will is both shaped by human activity, and human activity is shaped by the Egregore’s will. There is a bilateral union between humans and the higher order Systemic Organisms they create such that influence runs both ways. And of course, it does not stop at merely performing the duties of one’s job.

Take, for example, the role of “Corporate Culture.” Different companies have different flavors to them. Some might be more laid back, with a greater emphasis on team building and interpersonal relationships with one’s coworkers, while others might be more aggressive with a firm emphasis on cutthroat business tactics. Failure to fit in with the corporate culture leaves one liable to being terminated from one’s position. Thus in order to remain part of the network, one’s essence must likewise be shaped to be compliant with the nature of that Corporate Egregore. In this, we transcend merely performing our professional duties, and start to meaningfully approach something akin to at least a partial possession. While on the clock, one’s personality, one’s behavior, is reshaped to conform to the character of the Egregore governing that corporate network. Your personality adapts to that of the Systemic Organism to retain membership in it. Alternatively, one is cast out of the Systemic Organism and hopefully finds employment in Corporate Systemic Organism more in line with their innate character.

This, in my opinion, does not rise to the level of true possession, but I raise it to highlight that this appears to be a fundamental property of the dynamic between humans and higher order conscious Egregores. We, through our actions, shape the nature and behavior of the Egregore, but the Egregore in turn governs our behavior and shapes our character, at least while we are directly engaged with the Egregore.

So when does this dynamic rise to the level of actual possession? To illustrate this, I will return to Lilith, the Archetypical Succubus Demon, as identified as the Egregore born from the Porn Industry in “The Psychic Predator.”

Unlike the corporate Systemic Organism which is generally entered into only part of the time, and usually to practical ends for the individual, I believe that voluntarily entered networks such as that of the Porn Industry and its consumers are much more liable to manifest as true possession. This is because participation in these networks is generally more deliberate, and is thus more likely to be embraced, at least at first.

First interaction with the Archetypical Succubus Demon will almost always be voluntary, and generally not very extreme. Almost every man on Earth has interacted with this Egregore in this manner at some point. Possession only starts to emerge as one dedicates more and more of one’s time and attention to it. Consciousness is not a passive act. Attention is always directed at something. And when attention is directed at the Egregore, that is the opportunity for the Egregore to begin shaping one’s essence into conformity with the nature of that Egregore.

In the case of the Archetypical Succubus Demon born from the Porn Industry, this manifests as a desire to further engage with more porn. The more one dedicates their attention to this Egregore, the more they begin to feel addicted to it. Like they need it. Consequently they dedicate more of their attention to it. But that in turn deepens their addiction. The more addicted they become, the more their tastes will escalate to increasingly extreme content. This is not a fast process. One is not watching a vanilla strip tease one week and a hardcore BDSM session the next. But gradually, over time, the addict’s tastes will escalate into some more extreme fetish. They will routinely feel disgusted with themselves after viewing porn, largely because of the extremity of the content. And yet they will come back for more. This pattern of escalating behavior is well documented in people who report feeling addicted to porn.

Is this addiction? Yes, but moreover it is actually a warping of the essence of that person. The Egregore is physically changing you. It is rewiring your brain, slowly but surely, into a mirror of its own character. With each porn session, you are strengthening a neural pathway between watching porn and receiving a dopamine reward. This is the Egregore crystalizing itself within you. Where is the Egregore? Where does consciousness exist? It is not here in the material. It is there, in that pathway. Consciousness exists in the network. It is the network. And as you become addicted to porn, what you are doing is optimizing the network that exists within yourself to embody the nature of Lilith. And as this network is reinforced with repetition, and these neural pathways are built out further, and strengthened, and escalated, more and more of what you are is literally being reshaped in Lilith’s image.

You are not your body. You are the patterns of information exchange within your brain. That is where consciousness lies. That is who you are. Those patterns are merely products of your brain. And in allowing the Archetypical Succubus Demon to reshape those patterns through repeated conscious engagement with its manifestation as a conscious Egregore, you come to physically embody not yourself and your own essence, but that of the Succubus Demon. At a certain point, you cease to truly be yourself, and are really just a kind of avatar of the Egregore, it’s fundamental underlying characteristics having rewritten themselves over your brain and consumed you.

And this, is where this dynamic rises to the level of possession. For your body ceases to be your own. Your essence fades having been broken down and rearranged to mirror the nature of the Egregore you concentrated your attention on.

And this is unavoidable. We all engage with Egregores of varying kinds. The Systemic Organism is with humanity forever. We have always been tribal animals, and so a primitive variation of the Systemic Organism has always been with us in the form of the tribal Egregore. But as I’ve noted elsewhere, modern technological developments have substantially increased the sophistication of these forces as we have deliberately built out networking technologies to scale society with the Industrial Revolution. The consequence is that our Systemic Organisms are now the dominant life form on Earth, and they are only going to get stronger as these technologies continue to develop further. Conscious engagement with the Egregore thus becomes unavoidable.

In this, I identify a noticeable divide in the character of pre and post-internet generations. I find that the youth, by almost perpetually engaging with one network or another via the internet, increasingly seem less individual. The character of their personalities, their beliefs, and their experiences seem homogenized. There is some variance of course, and people will participate in different networks that fill various niches, but I identify in younger generations a kind of conscious unity that I do not observe in older generations who only engaged with these Egregores to this degree later in life.

I find that the younger generations may all be experiencing a kind of Egregoric possession that is unifying their personalities, beliefs, experiences, etc. It has not made literal copies of people, but there appear to be a few major “flavors” of terminally online that feel very accurately descriptive of much of Gen Z. At the risk of exposing myself as part of this phenomenon, it is reminiscent of the “NPC meme” and the idea that people are merely “downloading” their personalities. Where are they “downloading” this personality from? From the Egregore born of their social media network of choice.

I think this phenomenon is also much to blame for the rise of mental illness among the youth. They, especially as teenagers, feel normal teenage problems, but then in looking for solutions they join these Egregoric networks about mental illness. And as the character of this Egregore is “mentally ill,” repeated engagement with this Egregore in turns shapes them into increasingly extreme manifestations of mental illness.

In this, it becomes extremely important to curate what networks one is participating in. Because while possession is typically framed around demons, and one can most certainly become possessed by a Demonic Egregore, I believe the actual phenomenon is simply a product of the nature of the human/Egregore mutual influence dynamic. For example, everyone is possessed by their National Egregore to some degree. What we call “socialization” is actually the child being molded by the characteristics of their National Egregore. They are shaped into the cultural and moral norms of their people. And I would argue this is normal, and healthy, and good (for the alternative is to belong nowhere).

Thus while one can be possessed by a Demonic Egregore, one could theoretically also be possessed by, say, the Christian Egregore, or the Fitness Egregore, etc., and have one’s personality and essence warped into something more positive and good. And so one should not resist entirely this idea of Egregoric possession, but instead try to actively curate positive, or at least benign networks such that repeated engagement with this higher order consciousness will shape the self into a positive version of the self, rather than a negative or diminished one. And inversely, one should avoid negative Egregores like the plague, lest they be allowed to warp yourself into a mirror of their own twistedness.

Be mindful of what you attend to. Because it is always looking to embody itself in you.