Let’s Cast The Demons Out: Analysis of America’s Fascination With Exorcism
The parapsychological phenomenon of possession has been recognized for many years all over the globe, but remains a dimly lit corner of human experience. The term “possession” has gone through many definitions with time. During the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries, the religious concept of possession also included all psychiatric disorders, epilepsy and even migraine. After the seventeenth century, mental illness began to be recognized as such, and the number of demonic superstitions started declining. Further scientific developments, particularly Freudian theory of psychoanalysis and syndrome of multiple personalities, helped to separate psychosis (medical matter) from true possession (religious matter). In 1999, the Vatican updated its guidelines for expelling demons (last issued in 1614), urging exorcists to avoid mistaking psychiatric illness for possession and banning media coverage of exorcisms (“Vatican issues new exorcism rules”). However, the border between the two is still blurry, and scientists continue debating about whether possession is a legitimate syndrome or nothing more than one of the mental disorders.
In general, possession is the experience of being taken over by a foreign spirit. “First and most striking characteristics is that the patient’s organism appears to be invaded by a new personality; it is governed by a strange soul” (Oesterreich 17). “Most horrible of infernal grimaces” and “really demoniacal glances” (17) noticeably transform the person’s facial features. The voice timbre and articulation also changes in accordance with the new individuality inside the organism. “The feminine voice is transformed into a bas...
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The mass hysteria between today’s society and the Salem witch hunt can be compared through Freedom , Religion ,and the killing of innocent victims. Mass hysteria has caused a lot of destruction in society throughout the years. It has brought about a lot of chaos in both Salem as well as the present society. Mass hysteria has brought out a lot of fear in people in both Salem and present society.
In his book, Anderson (2006) proposes that there are mental illnesses out there that individuals are dealing with, that really has, the characteristics of demonic possession. The problem with secular psychiatry is that they dismiss the idea of demonic possession and categorize the behavior as mentally disturbed. The whole dilemma is that they refusal to acknowledge that an individual can be possessed by demonic spirits. Anderson (2006) takes issue with their thinking and supplies some theological framework in the development of his theory that individuals can and do wrestle with demonic spirits. God has strictly prohibited mankind from using spiritual sorcerer as written in Leviticus (19:31; 20:6, 27), “Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them…”(Anderson, 2006, pp. 127-128). This has been a rogue of Satan to distract individuals from their life purpose so that he may temp them. The greatest gift any individual has is to know that Christ has won their freedom and loves them with his unconditional love. Christ has won our freedom and redeemed us from the curse of sin.
The Southern Ohio Lunatic Asylum, a sanatorium in which a melting pot of the state’s criminally insane, daft and demented were housed, was later effectively named the Dayton State Hospital, ultimately named 10 Wilmington Place, which completely “derails” past notions of the previous named building, and has now become a retirement home for the elderly. “It must be remembered that popular thinking at this time had by no means entirely removed from “insanity” its ancient association with demons, spirits sin and similar mythical phenomena. Neither was it generally considered in the category of illness and hence the afflicted were viewed with an admixture of curiosity, shame and guilt” (INSIDE D.S.H 2). The author is conveying that there was a misconception toward the afflicted that they were not only insane but also demonically possessed, hence the obscurity of the patients due to curiosity and shame by the community. In such films as House on Haunted Hill in which certain archaic medical experiments were performed on patients that once were housed there; as a challenge a group of people were offered money to spend the night in a house thought to be haunted by former patients years ago. This movie concept is in accordance with the author’s statement about popular thinking and public views.
she was drunk and called another man to help wake her up and get her
The term possession is widely accepted as being "influenced or controlled by something (as an evil spirit, a passion, or an idea)". (Merriam-Webster) There have been numerous cases of spiritual possessions that causes harm to peoples. According to the Spiritual Research Foundation, to be possessed by spirits means that "the physical, mental, intellectual or spiritual functioning of a person if affected or altered" by such spirits. In both definitions, there is a common ground that spirits take control of whatever they inhabit. Throughout history, there have been occurrences of spiritual possessions of mostly toys or humans. Due to the media's over exaggeration of these "true stories", our minds are warped into believing that we are paranoid over toys, mainly dolls and humans who act abnormally. These spirits still linger in our world because of their refusal to “crossover” to the otherworld. They are an enigma beyond our capability of controlling. We cannot see them, we can only feel their presence. Popular portrayals of spiritual possessions from media and literature are Chucky from Child’s Play, The Exorcist, Dead Silence, The Conjuring, and the Supernatural series. All of these forms of media share a commonality in which the spirits inflict violence towards people surrounding them. Evil spirits are commonly portrayed through the possession of a suitable vessel. These spirits are wicked and angry beings who try to return from the dead, causing chaos and mayhem. Whether it be possessing non-living objects or a body, we are afraid of these things due to our inability to take control over them. Our lack of control causes us to be vulnerable to threats from possessed objects. The more afraid we are, the stronger the spirit...
Every cultural tradition and major religion has formed the idea of possession and has had the need for some form of exorcism. Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Islam’s, Buddhists and scientists all have different views on exorcism. Although these religions believe in the idea of exorcism, science proves to have different explanations to this phenomenon.
To draw a parallel of obsessional neurosis with religion, established disconcerting similarities between compulsive acts and religious practices that, in his view, aimed essentially the same thing: remove the guilt by a ritualistic compensatory restoration. Both the religious obsessive as in the main formula would be similar to what happens psych- scroll in a dream - through which the trivial details of the ritual activity become more important, since they are forcibly expelled the truly meaningful content. Regarding this analogy, Freud concludes that we can conceive of obsessional neurosis as a pathological match against religious formation, featuring obsessional neurosis as an individual religiosity and religion as a universal obsessional neurosis.
where they lose their hold on reality and they believe they are possessed by an evil spirit of a
the usual folder. It determines the way we frame everything . . . the attitude
The treatment of the mentally ill started back in the far past. In 400 BC, Hippocrates, who was a Greek physician, treated mental illness as diseases of disturbed physiology, and not displeasure of the Gods or demonic possession ("Timeline: Treatments for," ). Greek medical writers found treatments such as quiet, occupation, and the use of a drug called purgative hellebore ("Timeline: Treatments for,”). During these times, family members took care of the mentally ill ("Timeline: Treatments for,”). In the middle Ages, the Europeans let the mentally ill have their freedom, as long as they were not dangerous ("Timeline: Treatments for,”). The mentally ill were also seen as witches who were possessed by demons ("Timeline: Treatments for,”). In 1407, the first mental illness establishment was made in Valencia, Spain ("Timeline: Treatments for,”).
In prehistory, the idea of a mental illness was challenging to comprehend. The people of these ancient times thought it was magical spirits o...
Archeologists speculate that treatment for mental illnesses dates back to the Neolithic era, where a hole would be chipped into the skull by a sharp object to relieve the patient of an evil spirit. The diagnosis and acknowledgment of particular types of mental illness date back to the 5th century BC in Greece (Harris). Since then, the classification of different mental illnesses has varied immensely. Some classification methods included a handful of diagnostic categories while others included thousands (“History of the DSM”). However, recent Western diagnoses of mental illnesses stem from Sigmund Freud in the mid-to-late 1800s (McLeod). Currently, mental illness is defined as a group of mental disorders that causes severe disturbances in thinking, feeling, and relating
Possession is defined by many religions as the act by an outside force, either demonic or spiritual in nature, which takes physical control of an individual's body or an object. According to many religions and beliefs, humans, animals, places and objects alike are all susceptible to these supernatural forces. Possession can be ended in two different ways: through an exorcism as seen by the Catholic Church, or using an anti-possession symbol seen in voodoo, witchcraft, hoodoo, and shamanism. Possession is also seen, mainly in Christian beliefs as being unwanted, however there are other religions that allow and attract spirits for possession to take place such as spiritual healing mediums in Brazil (Greenfield). Anthropologists have discussed and theorized possession using a range of religious beliefs, and have decided that possession itself is either positive or negative. Along with this, they raised questions about how possession affects the culture in a society and the person who was possessed. By doing this, anthropologists try to go outside the concept of spirit possession as being solely negative, but rather an everyday phenomenon that is accepted in a society.
Psychological susceptibility to various faiths in the fact that human life is exposed to supernatural forces that affect a person's fate, and often prejudge its outcome, always existed in all human societies and cultures. One of the major determinants of this psychological susceptibility is superstitions that appear as the main engines of believe in the intervention of supernatural forces in human’s life. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica (2010) ‘superstition’ could be defined as ‘belief, half-belief or practice’, which does not have any rational explanation or basis. Despite this fact, according to Behringer (2004) the amount of believers in witchcraft and superstitions are significantly higher than in XVII century.
First, a sign someone is possessed is if they are speaking in a language they have never learned. This is different from talking in tongues, which is a religious language, not possession. The second way is knowing and revealing that the person has no earthly way of knowing. The person may not know things they previously knew or know how to do something that they should know how to do. The third way is physical strength beyond the person’s natural self or physical makeup. They may be way stronger than they appear or get drastically stronger. The final way is a strong dislike to God, the Virgin Mary, the cross, or other Catholic figures in the Catholic