WA state: Woman hospitalized after attending ritual involving piercing

[Emily]

This sounds like some sort of encephalitis.

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article215688945.html

[h=3]Police Beat: Spiritual possession, a driver without a clue and a mystery man[/h] By Sean Robinson

July 28, 2018 02:00 PM


Editor?s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police and the Pierce County Sheriff?s Department.
July 25: Sheriff?s deputies hear all sorts of explanations for unusual behavior. Typically, they don?t involve spiritual possession.
The dispatch call reported domestic violence. Three deputies drove to the 1000 block of 73rd Street East, near Midland.
They found a man, 63, holding his wife on the ground with help from the woman?s stepdaughter. The woman on the ground was screaming in a language the deputies couldn?t identify.
...
The man said his wife didn?t drink or use drugs. Then he told a story.
Recently he?d participated in a ?Sun Dance,? a ritual practiced in Native American cultures. The ceremony included dancing and piercing. The man said he had taken part in the ceremony for more than 20 years. His wife had seen it for the first time two days earlier....