Fighting with Demons
In the March 2007 issue of Transcultural Psychiatry, an overview is presented of three case histories of ogun oru (nocturnal warfare), a condition reported in southwest Nigeria involving an acute night-time disturbance that is culturally attributed to demonic infiltration of the body and psyche during dreaming. Sufferers of ogun oru episodes are usually (but not always) females who perceive the existence of an underlying feud between the sufferer's earthly spouse and a "spiritual spouse, and that they have been bewitched through eating while in the dream state. Medical problems that have been associated with ogun oru episodes include parasomnias, eg., sleep terror, sleepwalking and sleep paralysis and, to a lesser extent, nocturnal or sleep epilepsy. Sufferers reporting these problems may be referred to traditional healers as the condition is believed to be treatable through Christian prayers or elaborate traditional rituals designed to exorcise the demonic elements that have been taken in through eating. Cultural and family factors may prevent access to conventional psychiatric treatment.
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