Demonic Possession Hysteria

When the movie, “The Exorcist” first came out, Catholic Archdioceses throughout the world were inundated with calls from people who believed they or someone they knew was demonically possessed. There were also reports of people committing suicide because they were so sure they were possessed and did not want to live that way. With the recent release of, “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” a story based on the true story of “The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel,” a new wave began. Once again, people were scared out of their wits and many thought themselves to be possessed. To make matters worse, in both stories, the possessed girl died presumably as a result of the exorcism.

Was the story accurate? Do people really die during exorcisms or as a result of untreated demonic possession? Well, the movie was based loosely on the book. That answers question number one. The answer to the second question is tougher. If I were forced to give a one-word answer, it would have to be “yes.” People do sometimes die during exorcisms or as a result of demonic possession. The usual cause of death in these cases is suicide.

However, in most cases where death results from an exorcism, it is because it was conducted improperly by untrained people. Every so often, you will see a small clip in a newspaper where this very thing happened. When you read the article, it is clearly seen that the people involved had no clue how to perform an exorcism and probably had no clue on how to diagnose possession in the first place. The Roman Catholic Church takes many hits on the subject of possession and exorcism but if the truth were to be told, they have far and away more experience and knowledge on the subject. Of course, they prefer not to publicize that fact, sometimes for good reason. They are caught between a rock and a hard place.

They face two problems on the subject:

1) They want to appear to be modern thinking and up to date with the times. Who believes in the devil anyway?

2) When they do talk about possession, it again starts a wave of people who believe they are possessed.

As to the first issue, whether they like it or not, there is a devil. Yes, there are those in the Church who do not believe that. Are they themselves victims of demonization or are they simply misguided? It may sound paranoid to think that they are being demonized, much to the joy of conspiracy theory buffs, but on the other hand, how can they believe in God and not believe in the devil since the Bible and Christ’s teachings all point to demonic possession as being real. Scientists will argue, and correctly so, that many people believed to be demonized in the past were suffering from psychiatric or physical disorders. Yet there are still those today for whom no diagnosis fits and no medications or therapy helps. Some of those people respond quite well to an exorcism. Surely there are some people locked up in mental institutions who would best be served by an exorcism. We are now seeing a trend, minor at best, but a trend nonetheless where psychiatrists are becoming ever so slowly open to the possibility of demonic possession. Will it ever reach the point where it will be considered a diagnosis, treated with a form of therapy known as exorcism? Probably not and that is a shame. The need for exorcism is likely to grow for two reasons:

1) The world is seeing more evil than ever before.

2) More and more people are dabbling in the occult.

Evil has been around since the dawn of mankind. So has Satan. In fact, he preceded mankind. There has been mass slaughtering of people in all ages. Now I ask you a question: Is mankind inherently evil or is there an evil force that pushes people towards evil? Which would you prefer to believe? I am by no means trying to absolve mankind of their responsibility for their own actions. What I am saying is that there are people who the devil pushes. These are people who are easily manipulated for more reasons than I would even care to guess at. But they are out there and so are Satan and his legions.

The other problem is more complex because we now live in a society where are children are being taught that it is ok to be a witch or it is okay to cast spells. After all, they don’t really work, right? It is just harmless fun, or so one would be lead to believe. If you want to gage this yourself, simply look in any bookstore at the “New Age” section. It is dominated with books on spell casting and witchcraft of all colors. Another problem is television shows trivialize the subject. On one new, popular show, two men in the twenties, perform an exorcism on a man at 30,000 feet. It worked too, in about a three- minute span. There is a great danger in trivializing the supernatural. It can be deadly.

The truth is that the Catholic “Rituale Romanum” is the best remedy for possession. What needs to happen is the Church must find that delicate balance between teaching about demonism and terrorizing the masses. Yes, it is a fine line they must walk but they must find a way to do it. They must also teach people that they should no more self-diagnose demonic possession than they should self-diagnose a brain tumor. There are experts in the field that are capable of diagnosing true cases of demonic possession. If someone thinks they are possessed, they should seek help, not diagnose their suspected condition. The odds are strongly against their being truly possessed. Most possessed people have no idea they are possessed so if you think you are, the odds are strongly in you favor that you are not.

People cannot give in to hysteria. Movies about possession should be made. People should know that demonic possession is a reality but they should not overreact to it. The odds of being possessed are infinitesimally small. The likelihood that they need an exorcism is even smaller still. Live a good life and pray to God and you will have little to worry about.

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