A Facebook reader of mine suggested that I explain the “incubus” and “succubus.”
An incubus is a male spirit that seduces or has sex with a living woman; whereas a succubus is a female spirit that seduces a living man.
Fortunately, in contemporary times, we do not hear of incubus or succubus attacks anymore. But during the Medieval Era, there were many stories of such sexual molestations by evil spirits.
With the advent of psychology and psychiatry, however, such sexual molestations are often considered to be merely a delusion and not real spirit possession or molestation.This is unfortunate — because the existence of an incubus and a succubus is as real as the existence of ghosts.
Such sexual molestations by evil spirits usually manifest first as dreams of a sexual nature, but later on become very real and physical.
The word “incubus,” according to the dictionary, comes from the Latin “incubo,” meaning, “a nightmare induced by a malevolent or evil spirit.”
According to Wikipedia, “One of the earliest evident mentions of incubus comes from Mesopotamia in the Sumerian King List (around 2,400 B.C.), where the father of the epic hero, Gilgamesh, is listed as Lilu. It is said that Lilu disturbs and seduces women in their sleep, while Lilitu, a female demon, appears to men in their erotic dreams.”
In the late 80s, I encountered cases of women who were being sexually molested by male evil spirits. Such evil spirits had to be exorcized or banished by a qualified exorcist.
However, not all incubi are unwelcome. An interesting case that was brought to my attention was quite different. A married Italian woman, who lived in the Makati area, came to me because she had a spirit lover who would make love to her in the evening while her husband was asleep upstairs.
She enjoyed the sexual advances of the incubus and even welcomed it. But then later on, the incubus, for some reason, stopped visiting her. She came to me to ask if I could bring him back.
Another was the case of a very
well-known Filipina singer, whose late husband would visit her and make love to her in the evening. She said she believed it was her late husband because she knew the way he touched her and made love to her.
So it seems that incubus and succubus are not entirely demonic or bad spirits.
During the Middle Ages, a whole convent of Catholic nuns was possessed. An exorcist priest was assigned to exorcize the evil spirit. When some of the nuns got pregnant, the devil, as usual, was blamed for what happened to them.
I really pity the devil. He is often blamed for something he did not do, and credited for something he was not responsible for.