Demonic Possession, Angelic Assumption, and the Instrumental Body

Abstract: What is it for the soul to be the form of a living organism’s natural, instrumental body and the internal principle of its vital activities? How are we to understand how an organism’s vital activities are realized materially? The author attempts to answer these questions by discussing two very different models of the soul/body relation: the assumption of bodies by angels and the possession of bodies by demons. The assumed body that an angel employs instrumentally is not capable of vital activity at all. The possessed body that a demon employs instrumentally is capable of vital activity, but the demon serves as an external principle of its movements. The author argues that a living organism’s vital activities stand alone in having the soul as an internal principle of its instrumental body’s movements and explains what this means.