Half-Life

Do you think there really is a such thing as exorcisms? It is well known that the Pope performed about 3 exorcisms. What do you think is the cause of exorcisms? Do you think it's really a demon? Or a mental disorder/illness? Me, I do not know what it is and this is more stance until further evidence comes along.

Ron Singh

I believe that it is some sort of defect of the mind, and can be purged by channeling God.
Satan is evil. Evil is created by man. Man is evil. Man is his own devil. To say that he exorcised devils wouldn't be too far off from the truth.

daemon

No.
I assume you mean "alleged exorcisms."
Silly men. I kid, of course--I assume you mean what the cause of "possession" is. Possession seems to be a mental disorder of some sort. It seems telling that the only people who I've ever heard of being possessed were religious before being possessed.
Don't hold your breath.

Undercurrent

I might go out on a limb and suggest that acting posessed is a defense mechanism for people who feel guilty about something and want to believe that it wasn't really them doing what they feel guilty about.

Exorism just provides a face-saving exit strategy for this kind of delusion.

m.

Half-Life

I see. All these are valid points. Have you heard that the possesed would throw up, and talk demonically? I don't know how true this is but I heard it.

Datheron

Half-Life,

Well, I saw a documentary on deceitful practices once on TLC (it's pretty common, and they saw it a lot; interesting stuff). In addition to talking about fortune telling and communication with the dead and the parlor tricks they pull on people there, they also documented cases of faith healing where it was known that the preacher was a phony. It was theorized that even if he didn't possess any powers of God or anything, his victims still collapsed and fell down because

1) they saw others do it on TV
2) emotionally, they were charged

So it goes to show, such things are not as miraculous as they seem. If someone remembers this documentary or knows who I'm talking about, would they please post a link?

sighhswolf

The Catholic Church and the Pope himself has within the last 5 years discontinued any/all
exorcisms.
At one time every dioceses had a trained exorcist
assigned to it.
The Pope has made a public statement that the
concept of evil and Satan and his demons having tangible form, a physical manifestation, is no longer acceptable in todays world.
Rather evil dwells inside every person and the war on evil must be waged internally.

The Pope also said that mentally ill people were in days past considered possessed by demons, but
the church is very much aware today that the symptoms of mental illness can be made manifest
physically and instead of exorcisms, hospitals
and shrinks are a much better cure.

I gathered that it was not the intent to say evil does not exist, only to say it does not manifest itself in physical possessions.

With this new position, the Catholic church has been under fire from fundamentalists, but it does show that there are a few rational people within the ranks of the church.
Fundies argue that if they have given up the idea of Satan as a physical being, they would soon render god to the same conceptual territory.
It's about time we let go of the 360 degree head turn and the green pea soup spits.....dont ya think?
Wolf

braces_for_impact

I think it is a mental disorder. There was a special on 20/20 or Nightline or some similar talk show a few months ago. Interesting to watch. A man was convinced he was possesed, and lo and behold his baptist church bretheren agreed. They agreed to film the excorsim.

Basically as the filming went on, the man made a lot of grunts and gestures and scremaed and made a large racket while the pastor read from the bible, holding hands with his fellow parishoners. Just when they thought they were about done, wouldn't you know it, Satan himself decided to pop in and say hi to everyone. The episode closed with the acknowledgement that the excorsism was unsuccessful and had been tried a few more times.

I must admit myself a skeptic, expecially of supernatural phenomena, and I must say I have seen much better acting in Hollywood. Heck, I could have acted possessed better myself!

At the end of the show, they showed their tape to a Phychologist, and he was convinced the man was actually mentally ill. I think he was seeking attention, and what better why to do it?

The sad part of all this and "faith healing" is that a lot of people ignore real, valid treatment for their problems because of these fraudulent techniques. If you claim your a psychic on the phone and rip people off, the government will bust you, but claim your a religious healer or performing an excorsism, and the powers that be won't touch it with a ten foot pole. Sad.

3NT

I was personally involved in a so-called "deliverance" ministry as a participant and also had a close friend that acted as one of the deliverers. Both of us heavily doubt the true spirit behind the ministry (and she is still a Christian). They focused on casting out the demons of "midnight cereal cravings" and such. Seriously, most of the names for the demons were more real like "hatred" or "lust". The atmosphere was quite spooky, with shouts and screams periodically coming from the crowd as people were delivered.

Of course one of the required readings before you could attend this seminar was a book on deliverance from evil which detailed the deliverance process. Additionally, it was heavily suggested that things like this would happen. We were basically preped for the whole thing psychologically. Isn't it better to say "the devil made me do it" rather than take responsibility?!?

Demon possession makes for a better movie than theology.

Viti

My fundy Baptist sister in law asked me to read a fiction book about demons and angels (silliness). We were discussing it, and she told me this lady at her church (whom I have met and is a catty, petty, control freak) has the gift of "discernment" and knows if someone is truly demon possessed or mentally ill.

I am ever amazed at this nonsense...people will believe anything they want to. An exorcism is simply a big drama acted out as a justification of their silly beliefs IMO. I do not think all of them are knowingly faking...I think they want to believe so bad they create these dramas.