How does demonic possession work

The church's emphasis on faith and reason can even been seen in the birth of its exorcism ritual. The Rite of Exorcism was first published in by Pope Paul V to quell a trend of laypeople and priests hastily performing exorcisms on people they presumed were possessed, such as victims of the bubonic plague, says the Rev.

It said the exorcist should not have anything to do with medicine. Leave that to the doctors. Learn about the true story that inspired the movie "The Exorcist". Doctors, perhaps, like Gallagher. Gallagher says the concept of possession by spirit isn't limited to Catholicism. Muslim, Jewish and other Christian traditions regard possession by spirits -- holy or benign -- as possible. Mark Albanese is among them.

A friend of Gallagher's, Albanese studied medicine at Cornell and has been practicing psychiatry for decades. In a letter to the New Oxford Review, a Catholic magazine, he defended Gallagher's belief in possession. He also says there is a growing belief among health professionals that a patient's spiritual dimension should be accounted for in treatment, whether their provider agrees with those beliefs or not. Some psychiatrists have even talked of adding a "trance and possession disorder" diagnosis to the DSM, the premier diagnostic manual of disorders used by mental health professionals in the US.

There's still so much about the human mind that psychiatrists don't know, Albanese says. Doctors used to be widely skeptical of people who claimed to suffer from multiple personalities, but now it's a legitimate disorder dissociative identity disorder. Many are still dumbfounded by the power of placebos, a harmless pill or medical procedure that produces healing in some cases. Jeffrey Lieberman, a psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia, arrived at a similar conclusion after he had an unnerving experience with a patient.

Lieberman was asked to examine the videotape of an exorcism that he subsequently dismissed as unconvincing. Then he met a woman who, he said, "freaked me out. Lieberman, director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, says he and a family therapist were asked to examine a young woman who some thought was possessed. He and his colleague tried to treat the woman for several months but gave up because they had no success.

The film "The Rite" is based on the life of the Rev. Gary Thomas, one of the leading exorcists in the US. Something happened during the treatment, though, that he still can't explain. After sessions with the woman, he says, he'd go home in the evenings, and the lights in his house would go off by themselves, photographs and artwork would fall or slide off shelves, and he'd experience a piercing headache.

When he mentioned to this to his colleague one day, her response stunned him: She'd been having the exact same experiences. The tragic case of the real 'Emily Rose'. If you want to know why so many scientists and doctors like Lieberman are cautious about legitimizing demonic possession, consider one name: Anneliese Michel. Michel was a victim in one of the most notorious cases of contemporary exorcism.

If you have the stomach for it, go online and listen to audiotapes and watch videos of her exorcisms. The images and sounds will burn themselves into your brain. It sounds like somebody dropped a microphone into hell. Michel was a German Catholic woman who died of starvation in after 67 exorcisms over a period of nine months. She was diagnosed with epilepsy but believed she was possessed. So did her devout Roman Catholic parents. She reportedly displayed some of the classic signs of possession: abnormal strength, aversion to sacred objects, speaking different languages.

Learn about Anneliese Michel. But authorities later determined that it was Michel's parents and two priests who were responsible for her death. German authorities put them on trial for murder, and they were found guilty of negligent homicide.

One of the leading skeptics of exorcism -- and one of Gallagher's chief critics -- is Steven Novella, a neurologist and professor at Yale School of Medicine. He wrote a lengthy blog post dissecting Gallagher's experience with Julia, the satanic priestess.

It could be read as a takedown of exorcisms everywhere. He says Julia probably performed a "cold reading" on Gallagher. It's an old trick of fortune tellers and mediums in which they use vague, probing statements to make canny guesses about someone. Fortune teller: "I see a recent tragedy in your family. How did you know? Or take the case of a person speaking an unfamiliar language like Latin during a possession.

Did they understand Latin spoken to them? Or did they just speak Latin? Learn why Novella thinks exorcisms are fake. Novella says it's noteworthy that no one has filmed any paranormal event such as levitation or sacred objects flying across the room during an exorcism.

He's seen exorcism tapes posted online and in documentaries and says they're not scary. The most you get is some really bad play-acting by the person who is being exorcised. In an interview, Novella went further and criticized any therapist who believes his patient's delusions. Telling a patient who is struggling that maybe they're possessed by a demon is the worst thing you can do. It's only distracting them from addressing what the real problem is.

Driscoll, the Catholic priest who wrote a book about possession, is not a skeptic like Novella. Still, he says, it's not unusual for people on drugs or during psychotic episodes to display abnormal strength. Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa, Illinois. That doesn't mean he thinks possession isn't real.

He says the New Testament is full of accounts of Jesus confronting demons. Yes, I do," he says. People suffering from demonic possession often experience extreme physical, emotional, and spiritual pain, which calls for attention, careful evaluation, and professional assistance.

This could be pastoral care, mental healthcare, or a combination of both depending on the individual needs. Determining the kind of care a person requires can be difficult because they may present with symptoms that are characteristic of both demonic possession, and mental health disorders. Practitioners often fail to discern what a patient needs, i. The consequences of misdiagnosis can compromise well-being, and lead to social stigma. Spirit possession should not be seen as an isolated rare spiritual condition but rather as a spectrum of manifestations of increasing complexity.

Dr Illueca notes that formal research and empirical data are sparse, which has led to a misrepresentation of those with genuine problems, based on depiction in popular culture such as horror films.

For this reason, academic work such as hers is desperately needed so that those with spiritual afflictions can be protected from social marginalisation and receive the professional care they need. In cases suspected of demonic possession, individuals should be referred for pastoral care, which may include the use of deliverance ministries.

This is a collective term used to describe prayer-based interventions that act to cleanse a person of demons and evil spirits, and aid, in multi-disciplinary fashion with the physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual problems that are attributed to them. The interventions can range from specific deliverance prayers, to ritual-based exorcism reserved for the extreme, rare cases of possession.

The deliverance team is a multi-disciplinary group that often includes ministers, social workers, and psychologists. Demonic possession is a real phenomenon and it should not be ascribed to a psychiatric condition any more than mental illness should not be treated as demonic-induced.

Hence, professional evaluation and diagnosis is an essential step. One classical characterisation of spirit possession appears to lie in the scriptures of the Judeo-Christian Bible where spirits are described as benign e. Although empirical literature is limited, a spiritual syndrome appears to manifest along a spectrum ranging from spiritual vexation, obsession, oppression, and finally demonic possession. The term spiritual infestation is used by Dr Illueca as a description comparable to a parasitic or microbial contamination.

In the worst cases the evil spirit controls and uses the body as if it were its own. It takes deliverance prayers, or in extreme cases, exorcism, to relieve a victim from this state of possession. Acknowledgment of spirit possession in the pastoral and psychology literature is increasing, and the phenomenon of demonic possession is described worldwide across cultures and continents.

An early study by Bourguignon suggested North and South America to be most prominent in their belief in spirit possession. Knowledge and understanding of local ritual practices is important for discerning whether spiritual or psycho-social assistance is needed. Mainstream Christian religion is becoming more organised around the practice of deliverance ministries with formal training and credentialing of exorcists. One of the fundamental roles of deliverance ministers is to ascertain whether the affliction observed has a spiritual basis.

Although the supportive scientific proof is limited, there is consensus within deliverance ministry circles around the distinct characteristics of these signs, and they are still used today as criteria for diagnosis. The four criteria are: newly developed fluency by the patient in a foreign tongue; knowledge of hidden things such as identifying hidden objects or private details related to those present; supernatural strength that is disproportionate to the size of the person; and an aversion to sacred objects such as the Christian cross, Holy Water or the Bible.

When all four of these are present, they are considered to be specifically indicative of demonic possession. Anti-gravitational abilities i. Large scale recent research in Low and Middle Income Countries LMIC has shown that people with a history of childhood abuse or severe trauma are particularly vulnerable Hecker et al, as are those who dabble in occult practices e.

Ouija boards, cultic groups, etc. Psychiatric and spiritual conditions may overlap, and each requires accurate diagnosis in order to tailor treatment and avoid the potentially dangerous consequences misdiagnosis can lead to. In contrast to spiritual afflictions, psychiatric disorders are diagnosed by medical professionals who use a specific set of criteria to do so. There really was a boy who underwent an exorcism, but virtually all of the gory and sensational details appearing in the book and film were wildly exaggerated or completely made up.

While many Americans think of real exorcisms as relics of the Dark Ages, exorcisms continue to be performed, often on people who are emotionally and mentally disturbed. Whether those undergoing the exorcism are truly possessed by spirits or demons is another matter entirely. Exorcisms are done on people of strong religious faith.

To the extent that exorcisms "work," it is due to the power of suggestion and psychology: If you believe you're possessed and that an exorcism will cure you , then it just might.

The word exorcism derives from the Greek word for oath, "exousia. Lewis explains in his book "Satanism Today: An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore, and Popular Culture," "To exorcise thus means something along the lines of placing the possessing spirit under oath — invoking a higher authority to compel the spirit — rather than an actual 'casting out.

The Vatican first issued official guidelines on exorcism in , and revised them in According to the U.