How to Spot a Dybbuk

Dybbuk (pronounced "DIH-buk"), from the Hebrew meaning "cleaving" or "clinging," is the term for a wandering spirit that attaches itself to a living person and controls that person in order to accomplish a task. Surprisingly, being possessed by a dybbuk is not always a bad thing for the human host, but it can sometimes be a very bad thing.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Identifying the Dybbuk

1. Look for a person whose soul and body are not fully integrated because of severe melancholy or psychosis. This person may tell you he's been feeling "out of sorts" or she may seem changed considerably from the person you know.
2. Listen for the person to talk about things he or she ordinarily would not know, such as speaking a language he never learned, describing a crime in great detail that she never committed or telling you what you dreamed last night. Pay particular attention if the person describes a situation similar to, but not identical to his own; dybbuks usually possess those whose situations are similar to what they went through in life.
3. Watch for signs the person will give into her bad inclinations; under these circumstances, the dybbuk must be exorcised.

Exorcising the Dybbuk

4. Contact a rabbi versed in the practical Kabbalah to perform the exorcism ritual.
5. Assemble 10 people, including the rabbi, into a circle around the possessed person.
6. Recite Psalm 91 three times while the rabbi sounds a shofar (ram's horn). The shofar is sounded to "shatter the body" of the possessed person and "shake loose" the possessing soul.
7. Ask the dybbuk why it possessed the person.
8. Pray for the dybbuk to encourage it to leave the body of the person possessed.

Tips & Warnings

• Not all dybbuks possess others with the intent to do evil. Some serve as spirit guides to permit a person struggling with a problem to have the strength to overcome it, similar to Dr. Sam Beckett on the television show "Quantum Leap."
• Not all apparent dybbuk possessions are real possessions. In one case from Jewish folklore, a rabbi determined that a girl thought to be possessed was in fact not possessed and sent the girl home with an alarm clock set to go off at 4:30, telling her family that the dybbuk would leave at that time. At 4:30, the alarm sounded and the girl and her family believed she was cured.