She disappears upstairs to change and returns, pretty in pink and clutching a bouquet of roses. She is escorted to the altar and takes her seat next to the nervous-looking bridegroom. Erzulie Freda has entered the room in the shape of Mamoun, the chief mambo. In her state of possession, she no longer needs glasses and her face becomes screwed up and angry. She demands money from people, sputtering curses if they're not quick on the draw with a dollar bill.Around two o'clock, four hours into the ceremony, we come to the main event. A farmer god, Azaka, takes over the body of an older woman wearing thick glasses. The gods flaunt their personalities aggressively, in a dramatic confrontation with the sometimes frightened believers.

Every time a god enters someone, there is a loud thump from the drums (Damas Fan Fan Louis tries to "get" people) and the dizzying smell of Cologne is pungent in the air. In its own Hollywood way, the movie touches upon an important voodoo tenet - that those who lived before influence the lives of those living today.By now, possessions are coming thick and fast. In Clint Eastwood's film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which opens this month, a voodoo priestess tries to commune with the spirits of the dead in a graveyard at midnight. There are literally hundreds of deities in the voodoo pantheon, derived from a variety of African nations. The religion also focuses on venerating ancestors and dealing with the dead. I ran out of the room so quickly, because I didn't want to know what would happen next."Possession is at the heart of the voodoo ritual, during which the spirits speak and act through family members.

I knew this thing that started at the base of my spine was working its way up and was going to hit my head. Suddenly, she snaps to her feet with a look of terror - her eyes are wide, her mouth gapes - before the god leaves her and she collapses in a chair."I remember feeling this whack in my lower back," says Desir-Davis, recalling the first time she experienced possession, at the age of 15. "The only way I can describe the sensation is that it felt like a snake was undulating up my back This was new I found myself unable to control what was going on. A group of women surround her, chattering in Creole and French. They cover her head with a white silk cloth and splash her with drops of eau de Cologne.