Demonic Possession

[scorpiogirly]

Do you believe?

I've been watching a lot of podcasts on YouTube lately with exorcist from the church.

I'm torn. Do you believe?

Obviously it's never happened, I was being sarcastic. I meant in the brains of the people who believe it. What specific symptoms makes them choose to "diagnose" behaviour as possession rather than mental health. I should have clarified that this was a question for the believers. I don't think it exists, I think it's a way to abuse people with significantly poor mental health.

In the year running to March 2024 alone, the DfE recorded 2,180 assessments of abuse linked to faith or belief.

The film Kidoki Witch Boy is a prime example.

My aunt was repeatedly SA’d by the family priest. My grandmother refused to believe he was anything other than “Such a good man”, refused to believe it. Despite having 8 kids of her own, she blamed my aunt’s weight gain on “thyroid problems”, and when my aunt gave birth in her cupboard, and took the dead baby (not sure if it was born alive or not) to get rid of her body with her older sister and nobody spoke about it. When she tried speaking up, they blamed “demonic possession” and subjected her to exorcisms. Unsurprisingly, she developed a drinking problem and MH issues, which my grandmother would refer to as “the devil in that one…”
Human behaviour is far worse than anything lconjured up by their imagination.

@Fraaances that's horrific. Your poor aunt.

how snooty

Yes, I’ve seen those (briefly).

My own grandfather believed he’d been cursed. I’ve told the story elsewhere on Mn at some point, but he believed someone had put a piseóg on him — his crops failed, his first wife died etc. He had poor MH, possibly PSTD from experiences during the war of independence and civil war, and was hospitalised several times. It’s fairly clear to me, putting the pieces together a generation later, that a neighbour who wanted his land was profiting from a fragile man’s delusion. His delusion did wreck his life, though. He lost his family farm, and lived the rest of his life barely above the breadline working as a labourer.

I do t think it’s ‘snooty’ to suggest that taking the word of a begging, homeless addict on demons telling him where money and drugs are is more than a bit irrational.

Yes of course it's snooty. You only take the word of reputable people, who speak nicely and wash every day. The idea that someone who smells might have an opinion is just absurd!

"God" no 😂

For God’s sake. For one thing, taking anything as gospel because ‘someone’ told you it was the case it is ridiculous.

For another, poor MH is a significant cause and and effect of homelessness. MH problems can trigger or contribute to the chain of events that make someone homeless, and then the stress of homelessness can exacerbate psychological difficulties, so there’s a far higher rate of mental illness among homeless people. Crisis says 8 out of 10 rough sleepers have poor MH.

To cut a long story short, if a homeless person you don’t know tells you he’s demonically possessed and that’s how he knows how to find money and drugs, it’s considerably more likely he’s got some form of psychosis than that he’s Beelzebub in human form.

Thank you for the link

yes it’s very interesting and when you look back in history how this shifts

Just read about these, wtf is wrong with people ?!
it also recommended me a link to this
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kelly-smith-convicted-kidnapping-human-trafficking-daughter-south-africa/

little girl sold to a healer for her body parts !

To believe in demonic possession you’d have to believe in god so as an atheist I don’t believe in either.

Infact, I’d go as far as to say it’s very silly - same with Ouija boards

Fuck me, of course not. Other things I don't believe in: a flat earth, the Loch Ness monster, the tooth fairy, Prince Phillip killed Lady Di, astrology... Looney tunes, the lot of you.

I imagine because Putin’s mum hasn’t approached an exorcist to drive out a demon. Exorcists only go where they’re wanted.

I’ve got a great idea. If one low-level priest can drive out a demon, why don’t they get a top priest, like the Pope or the Dean of Ely Cathedral, to drive out all demons at once?

That’d show ‘em!

Head swivelling nonsense for the credulous.

In fact the theory now is that energy centres, meridians, nadis all refer to fascia, the study of which is pretty new and very interesting. It used to be considered inert and almost without function, now we are just beginning to see what it does and is responsible for in the body.

😂

im a christian but I had psychosis and it has made me tihnk whether I have some sort of static oppression. I know in theory that I can be possessed.

How do they tell which ones they think need a genuine exorcism?

That's awful, I'm really sorry. 💐

Annaliese Michel is a tragic example from the 1970s of how belief in exorcism can impede treatment. The Vatican was at least forced to reform their exorcism procedures after that...

I recently read a really interesting article about an Ultra Orthodox Jewish man in Jerusalem who believed he was possessed. His psychiatrist wrote about how he was able to use the man's beliefs to help cure him, though this is probably a risky maneuver.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=www.onnovdhart.nl/articles/paradise_regained.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiHqoKhpbKSAxWYTkEAHR7iC34QFnoECCgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1QUJL7H90JEk4uFX2SCKUV

This is quite mainstream in some US evangelical circles. You can hear several prominent ones speaking about 'spiritual warfare' at political rallies...very worrying.

Cold reading? Some people who are mentally ill can be hyperalert & pick up on details that the people around them might not realise they're giving away.

How did he say you could tell possession apart from mental illness?