I saw The Exorcist not long ago, probably the bravest thing I have done in a while. The movie terrified me the first time around in 1973, and it did the same fifty years later. This time it got me thinking about possession. It made me wonder if milder forms of possession — no projectile green goo, no head twirling 360 degrees round — might be abroad in American culture now. Alas, there is reason to think so.