Vatican Demands "Thousands of Trained Exorcists" For Demonic Possession Crisis - Can We Agree Bunkum Never Dies?

The header for the NBC Today story in yesterday's 2nd hour was: "Vatican Training More Exorcists Among Rising Reports of Demonic Possession"- which featured  interviews with a couple of padres including one Spaniard who insisted he was getting at least "one excorcism request" per week. Another insisted the "demand is definitely exceeding the supply" e.g. of trained exorcists. And,we are expected to believe that because of this increased demand,  the Vatican will have to train thousands in the art of exorcising Old Scratch wherever he appears.   May I offer one suggestion? That they commence by sending a team of exorcists to the White House to get all the demons out of the "Prince of Lies", aka Donald Trump?

Indeed, according to several other sources, demonic activity appears to be on the rise not only in Europe but in the U.S. See e.g.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/us-exorcists-demonic-activity-on-the-riseurope but in the U.S. 

Therein we also learn:

"There is an alarming increase in demonic activity being reported by those who work in exorcism ministry, said the exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Although steps are being taken to increase the number of exorcists, demand is still outpacing supply.

Father Vincent Lampert has been an exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis since 2005 and is the pastor at St. Malachy’s in Indianapolis. He trained at the North American College in Rome and assisted with more than 40 exorcisms with longtime Italian exorcist Father Carmine De Filippi. Although the identities of most exorcists are hidden, Father Lampert often gives talks to warn against evil and turn people toward the power of God.

In an interview with the Register, he said that he sees an increasing number of people involved in Satanic rituals and opening themselves up to evil.

“The problem isn’t that the devil has upped his game, but more people are willing to play it,” Father Lampert said. He pointed to rampant pornography, illegal drugs use and the occult. “Where there is demonic activity, there is always an entry point,” he said.

Adding:

"He explained that demonic infestation happens in places where things might move and there are loud noises. With vexation, a person is physically attacked and might have marks such as bruises, bites or scratches. Demonic obsession involves mental attacks, such as persistent thoughts of evil racing through one’s mind.

“In possession I have seen eyes rolled back in the head, throwing out obscenities, bodily contortions, foul odors, temperatures drop in the room, and I’ve witnessed someone levitating.”

An entry point? Give me a break.  Eyes rolling back in the head? Likely an opioid overdose! Foul odors? A flatulence problem and perhaps suffering from lactose intolerance.  Shouting obscenities? Ever heard of Tourette's syndrome?   Levitating?  Have you taken into account brief gyrations from a prone position displacing a body briefly (10 -50 ms)   above a surface? Have you measured the "altitude" and the actual duration?

A far more compelling explanation for this demonic inicrease was offered by UK psychologist Chris French in the NBC piece. That is, by adopting the "possession" mantle the "victims" can more easily absolve themselves of any responsibility for their actons (e.g. "The Devil made me do it")

To see Prof. French's lecture on the psychology of demonic possession go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOW1CS0OC_Q


It will be well worth your investment of time!

Astonishingly,  according to Prof. French, "belief in possession is widespread both geographically and historically and is far from rare in modern western societies". A YouGov poll of 1,000 US adults last year found that over half of the respondents endorsed belief in possession and 20% remained unsure. Only 11% said categorically that they did not believe people could be “possessed by the devil”.

Only eleven percent? One out of every nine?  8 out of every 9 buy into this baloney? You must be kidding!

What this tells me, convincingly, is that the promise of the Enlightenment has never been fulfilled - even in the West.  It couldn't have been if the methods of rational inquiry and  science engendered from it never made their way into the brains of these people.  They may have taken a high school (or even 1st year university) biology, physics or chemistry course and even memorized a lot of formulas and  mastered some principles (conservation of mass- energy) but it clearly hasn't been embedded into their core being.  It hasn't become second nature.  It is more or less in the background "mental ether"  since their superstitious instincts take precedence over their prefrontal cortex and remain intact.

Prof. French in a separate article pointed out that the condition that would often have been interpreted in a similar manner to demonic possession in ages past is Tourette’s syndrome.  He also noted:

"Interestingly, the first recorded description of a case of Tourette’s may be in the Malleus Maleficarum (or Witch’s Hammer) published in the 15th century by Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kraemer. This notorious book served as a guide for identifying witches and the possessed and included a description of a priest whose tics were thought to be a result of possession by the devil."   

Recall I did a blog post on this topic back in  November, 2012,  in terms of rooting out demonic incubi and succubi, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/11/beware-of-sexual-congress-with-succubi.html

In the same  article Prof. French noted:

"Of course, we must not forget that the outcome for the person who is labelled as “possessed” can sometimes be far from positive. To give one notorious example, the parents of 23-year-old Anneliese Michel and two West German priests were convicted in 1978 of causing her death (they received suspended sentences). They had starved the young epileptic as part of a horrendous 11-month exorcism. She weighed just 68 pounds (5 stone or 30 kilograms) at the time of her death. The Guardian has noted that belief in possession has been a factor in several child abuse cases in the UK, including the tragic death of Victoria Climbié in 2000.

The official recognition of such pre-Enlightenment beliefs by the Vatican will do nothing to prevent future tragedies of this kind."

And believe me, more tragedies will occur if this garbage continues. That elicits the question: Why have  Enlightenment values not taken hold?

Readers might regard this stuff as flaky but they'd be wrong. In fact, under Pope Francis, who frequently mentions the Devil, exorcisms are booming. As Exhibit "A" there's  The Pope Leo XIII Institute for the “education & training of priests in the holy ministry of exorcism and deliverance."  which opened in 2014 when the initial exorcist jabber got on the radar. 

Often quoted at that time was Father Francesco Bamonte, president of the Italy-based International Association for Exorcists. Back in 2014 he opined:

“Diabolical possessions are on the increase as a result of people subscribing to occultism. The few exorcists that we have in the dioceses are often not able to handle the enormous number of requests for help.”

While it is true that exorcism has been taught as part of Catholic theology – as my old Loyola University Theology notes show, e.g.

No truly mature and rational priest or Bishop really believes that. It is merely fed to them, like the whole concept of “sin”, to keep the faithful at the level of malleable infants to be controlled. I left the Church precisely because I wanted to be an independent thinker …and doer. Not bound to any silly, centuries -old dictates or dogmas.

But that hasn't halted the new breed of superstitious twits from spreading their malarkey - likely as a tactic to take the heat off the Vatican for the sex abuse scandal -  and also create a new demand for Church services and even joining (or rejoining) Mother Church. Why? Well to pump back up her falling numbers! (Pew Religion Research surveys have found Catholic numbers have plummeted by at least 10 percent over the last decade.)

Now, we return to the question of why the Enlightenment values haven't been absorbed - including by university -educated people. The basic reason is that they may go to the finest schools, even "Ivy League" - but they never learned the skills associated with critical thinking.  Hence, they never learned to question claims from alleged authorities deeply and critically.   In addition, too many of those graduating with degrees today only have a limited, one-dimensional education whether in science, business or whatever. They lack the breadth of the liberal arts grounding, i.e. being exposed to multiple domains of learning, that we had in the past. (My background, for example, included not only physics and advanced math but theology, biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics, logic ...oh, and English literature.)

Hence, because their education - such as it is - amounts to literal "ivory towers" - they often find themselves perched atop one or other and unable to connect, integrate and unify disparate findings from other areas.   I mention this because it is precisely such an integrated disciplinary approach which enables the most effective critical thinking. This kind of critical thinking then, becomes a powerful tool whether applied to investigating statistical anomalies in solar flare and CME occurrence in magnetically complex regions,  the Kennedy assassination,  crop circles or demonic possessions and exorcisms.

Those who fail to see how a space physicist could also investigate such things as political assassinations and exorcism,  even questioning the validity (or veracity)  of such "off specialty" inquiries, merely expose their own limited educations and being stuck on academic "steeples".  (Assuming they possess academic backgrounds at all!) They are unable to integrate aptitudes, knowledge and can't see how others can.  Bolstering this view is the WSJ piece (3/2,  p. A13) by Michael Zimm extolling the import of liberal arts education, e.g. :

"Liberal arts courses don't offer clearly defined answers to questions. Rather they nurture disagreements among students and help them to develop the ability to marshal cogent arguments in support of defensibe positions."

Those without such education are often unable to apply critical thinking to disparate claims - especially in the supernatural realm. Such people then become hostage to these  absurd claims, and - if something is remotely not understood - fall prey to the nonsense.  Consider that the most fundamental  premise for existence of demons, and by extension "Satan" - is that there is a supernatural domain.

Once one admits to the existence of this "plane" then he is also liable to accept it can intrude into our material plane, and hence demonic possession.   As I noted in my ASTRONOMY magazine article:  ‘The God Factor’ (Astronomy Forum, March, 1990), science selectively excludes problems for which no practical method of inquiry exists. The supernatural, which is neither measurable or verifiable, falls into this category and that includes ‘God’ - if depicted as "causeless" and "supernatural"  as well as "Satan" and hence, demons and demonic possession.

Demonology perhaps saw its greatest advancement and takeover of human brains - like your typical mind virus - when humans began to take pen to paper to draw demonic characters. For example, in one ancient text the following prominent demons were given names  - and hence - to many of the weaker minded, existence:


Naturally, naming the demon then became an important part of exorcism rituals.  Watch the movie "The Exorcist" again and see if you can pick out the point where the demon possessing Reagan is named by the exorcist. (Hint: the demon's name was Pazuzu, also called "Captain Howdy" by Reagan.)

Christian theologians - with endless time on their hands and nothing positive to energize their brains- ultimately worked out whole hierarchies for Hell. Basically, if one examined them, they pretty well resembled what one beholds in modern corporations. The "head CEO" was Lucifer or “Beelzebub” who – as the Christian top Devil- was to lord it over all other circles and levels. The 2nd hierarchy was to be ruled by Carreau, the Prince of Powers. His specialty was “hardening human hearts”(Lauran Paine, ‘The Heirarchy of Hell’, p. 62)

The third hierarchy was under "Lord Belial". Each hierarchy had its own prince under Satan (Lucifer) and its own specialty for temptation. Probably the total number of Devils in all the hierarchies numbered two thousand, if one omitted their (demonic) “choirs” or sub-orders, which members were to be known as “demons”. To these were allotted the real dirty work of human possession. (Dirty work because a demon never knew when he might be violently ejected from his host!)

It bears noting that the Catholic Church's ritual of exorcism was founded and promulgated not on the belief that demonic possession was real, but that the afflicted person believed it was real. Thus, the rite of exorcism was initiated as a memetic template to cure the belief in the person's possession, not any objective possession per se. Up to now, indeed, no one has been able to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that any demonic possession has ever occurred, never mind absurd fictional portrayals like those in 'The Exorcist'.

Doubts that possession was real probably surfaced first just after the period of the Inquisition. This is because the tortures and executions of the Inquisition were self-sustaining, because none of the greatest theological minds could figure out how one might exterminate demons or Devils permanently by killing the allegedly possessed humans. Because they could not be killed, and could still possess humans (according to the Inquisition), then whenever you tortured a heretic or apostate to death  the possessing devil or demon would just skip to another forlorn soul, who in turn would have to be killed. With that possessing demon jumping to another ,…..and so on keeping the Inquisition’s fires and torture wheels going indefinitely.

Eventually, the Church's great brains figured out they could potentially slaughter every single living member of the "Body of Christ" yet not be able to get at the demons or Satan himself! In other words, their own feverish delusions were having them on, leading them to excessive actions and reactions that didn't do a damned thing to advance the welfare of the "Body of Christ".

Adding fuel to Satan-mania was the Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer (Dean of Cologne University) and Jacob Sprenger (Dominican Inquisitor General of Germany). This was the book which gave the prescriptions for exposing those possessed, or under the influence of familiars or witches or other demonic entities (succubi, incubi) under a Bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII.

Because this book allowed persecution to spread to tens of thousands of women - as "witches" - it soon became evident to the best and brightest that belief in demonic possession was in fact a recipe for self-extermination, not purification!

At the very least it meant one half of humanity being exterminated, since generally, throughout the Middle Ages, the belief persisted that the female was closer by far to the demonic hordes, by virtue of her enhanced carnality. Indeed, the demise of male virtue as well as mental power could allegedly be traced to female wiles, and what better way to enhance them than using a herb like savin (given by a witch)

Given the “evidence” of any one or all of these the accused witch could be apprehended and subjected to “the question”. This meant usually prodding her flesh with special instruments to locate the mark of “the Beast” (666) or any similar mark usually associated with the Devil. If a first pass wasn’t enough gradually more pressure and torture would be applied, usually ending up in some sort of disfigurement being found eventually and attributed to the Devil. According to author Peter Stanford (‘The Devil’, 1996, p. 162):

“Witches and warlocks provided an easy target for the Church, intent on rallying the faithful with a bout of demonization”

Probably over a half million innocent women throughout the West underwent such appalling tortures merely to appease savage and depraved minds they didn't have a demon lurking inside them.

Thus, the road to what should have been permanent  rejection of  demonic possession was replete with horrible suffering and endless death. In other words, nearly 2 million innocent humans had to be brutalized, maimed or slaughtered, before humans (at least in the West) figured out that retaining a belief in demonic possession did not redound to their benefit. But alas, that human cost appears to have been for nothing as we see the demands for this archaic and questionable practice resurrected now in the 21st century.

Sadly, while the curse of belief in demonic possession had for a time retreated in the more enlightened West (thanks to the continuing benefits of rational skepticism and the Enlightenment) these dark ideas now seem to be making a comeback, thanks to anti-rationalists in the Church - as well as a 24/7 media cycle that can't get enough bull crap to broadcast.

For the confirmed skeptic or atheist, there is only one place to put this latest rush to sanctify baloney and superstition - in the dustbin of history - along with using leeches to bleed out disease, and slaughtering cats to stop the plague.

See also:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2016/09/did-satan-visit-loyola-university.html

Did "Satan" Visit Loyola University Women's Dorm Back In 1968?

Fr. Harold Cohen - would be Loyola exorcist.

If you've been around long enough you eventually have been exposed to all manner of malarkey. One of these concerns an alleged visitation from  "Satan" at one of Loyola University's dorms (Buddig Hall)  in 1968.  According to 1974 reports from the Loyola Maroon, two Loyola University (New Orleans) coeds were confronted with a series of bizarre happenings long before “The Exorcist” focused attention on the horrors of demonic influence.

The incident was evidently so terrifying that a priest was called to perform "a minor exorcism" on an eighth floor suite in Buddig Hall, the female dorm.  Note that barely two months earlier, Linda - a gf from Miami visiting for Mardi Gras - stayed in the same dorm on the same floor. She lived in a Buddig suite with two LU students for just over a week and reported nothing unusual although on one occasion she told me she did see a trio of giggling coeds with a Ouija board. As it turns out, the device  (or another like it) figured prominently in what transpired, or rather - what two coeds in Buddig reported had transpired

According to the Maroon account:

"The principals in these strange events were two 18-year-old freshmen, Marie Price Stevens and her roommate, Brenda (who asked that her last name be withheld). Witnesses to these events were Janet Jones and Dorothea Brennan, who occupied the adjoining room, 812.

Janet Jones begins the story: 'It was Brenda, Marie and I who first began playing with the Ouija board. Dorothea didn’t believe in it, and it refused to cooperate with her. It would spell out that it was an evil spirit, and three or four times, it asked us to put Marie on. When she got on, it said it wanted to possess her. And then we began to be afraid.' "
---------

Okay, first, let's try to clear our heads and enlist the services of logic and reason. Why would any "evil spirit" seeking to successfully possess a person actually admit that it was an "evil spirit"? This is nonsense. A genuine entity as so claimed would conceal its true intent and instead portray itself as benign, even friendly. This is the first inkling of bare bollocks.

That inkling is then magnified into a pretty clear case of tomfoolery when said spirit declares - or is said to declare "it wanted to possess her". Again, no entity worth its salt would telegraph such intentions  or desires- knowing this would inspire fear and render its task more difficult.  By this stage anyone hearing this balderdash ought to have smelled a rat, but let's  continue with the Maroon's account:

"Marie Stevens continues: 'Then we communicated with a woman named Hazel. She said she was a Creole from New Orleans whose husband died in prison for a crime she committed. One day, while playing in Neil’s room (a student who lived in Biever Hall), Hazel came to us. Neil laughed at her once and she spelled ‘Cut stomach. Kill Neil.’ The next morning, Neil had stomach cramps in the cafeteria and collapsed on the way out. We rushed him to the hospital and were told he had acute appendicitis.”

So what? When I was at Loyola (1964-67) there were no fewer than four cases of appendicitis in Biever Hall. It isn't very pleasant but it happens. After all, the vermiform appendix is a vulnerable organ. Once again we behold the  post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy. That is,  assuming a causal relationship from a merely sequential one. Event Y (in this case Neil's stomach cramps- acute appendicitis) followed Event X ("Hazel" saying "Kill Neil") therefore Event Y must have been caused by Event X.    But there is absolutely no reason to believe this was anything other than coincidence, and indeed  it may not even meet that threshold since "Hazel" is likely a figment of the coed's Ouija imaginings. (I admit I also dabbled in Ouija boards with college friends in the 1960s but at no time was there ever a case of "possession".  There was an incident when a somewhat drunken coed barfed on the board - hitting the planchette with her vomit, moving it -  after one too many bourbon and cokes!)

The Maroon account ends:

“Finally, Hazel disappeared and ‘Satan’ appeared to us. We asked it to prove it was Satan, and it said it would appear in a blue flame over Brenda’s head. We turned out the lights, and Janet and I saw only the shape of Brenda’s head. On her face were blue features: blue eyes, nose, and mouth. Soon after, Dorothea called a priest. Fr. Cohen said the possibility existed that we were in contact with Satan. And if we were, he didn’t know what would happen.  Then at 2 a.m. several weeks later, Brenda and I were dozing off when we heard noises. The objects on the shelves above our beds were moving back and forth. Suddenly the big poster tacked to the right of the window flew at me with tremendous force. I turned on the lights and saw the poster lying on my bed. And the objects on the shelves were rearranged. In hysterics, I called Fr. Cohen (Associate Director of Campus Ministry) at 3:30 in the morning.... we took him to our room, and he performed an exorcism.”

There is so much dense,  illogical codswallop here it's almost like wading through the delirious claims of a climate change denier. She asserts "Hazel  disappeared" and "Satan appeared"  but then confesses she had to ask it to "prove it was Satan".  But why would she call it "Satan" if she needed proof? According to her account the alleged entity set its own proof criterion:  the blue flame "over Brenda's head". But anyone who is the least invested in empirical proof and scientific testing of claims knows damned well you don't let the subject specify conditions for the proof - YOU set the standard and criteria!  If I am testing whether Uri Geller really bends spoons, I don't let him set the proof criteria (e.g. "I will bend this spoon over the TV while you watch it from here") - rather I will demand the standard: e.g. "Ok, chump, here are ten different spoons of differing alloys, I want you to bend all of them at once such that the spoon tips touch the handles!"

Again, the whole incident reeks of tommyrot. The claims of telekinetic events, i.e. a poster flying off the wall etc., don't prove anything sinister other than these girls have wild imaginations.  My then  visiting gf Linda, for example, regaled me more than once with how literal gusts would blow into her suite when one coed or other opened a window, especially at certain times on the 8th floor. She also reported suite mates chasing down posters blown off the walls, as well as knick knacks blown off shelves.  No supernatural forces required!

Another thing,  the claimed  PK events happened "several weeks later"  (i.e. after the "Satan" apparition)  once more a case of post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy.  Two last points: Fr. Harold Cohen, while a decent guy and thoughtful Jesuit, never had any qualification as an Exorcist. Further, any nominal Catholic knows you don't perform a "minor exorcism" on a dorm room, you perform it on a person, a possessed human - or an allegedly possessed one.

It is also interesting that this burst of devil mania occurred not long after Loyola had offered several cycles of Theology courses focused on demoniacs. See e.g. the notes below from one of the courses which I took in Fall of 1964:


 What if lots of kids in those TH 110  classes made copies of the notes and distributed  them around? What if they were a source of curiosity for several years?  What if such notes, combined with Ouija board play, engendered the whole Satanic nonsense that erupted that night in Buddig Hall?  

Finally, let me remind readers that the Catholic Church's ritual of exorcism was founded and promulgated not on the belief that demonic possession was real, but that the afflicted person believed it was real. Thus, the rite of exorcism was initiated as a memetic template to cure the belief in the person's possession, not any objective possession per se. Up to now, indeed, no one has been able to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that any demonic possession has ever occurred, never mind absurd fictional portrayals like those in 'The Exorcist', or 'The Rite'.

As for Buddig Hall, remarkably everything settled down very well  in the ensuing years, so maybe Fr. Cohen's suite "exorcism" did work in some obscure way. It got the Buddig residents to believe Cohen's mumbo jumbo had worked so there was no point in using Ouija boards  for recreation anymore anyway!

See Also:

Spooky Flashback: 'Satan' visits Buddig Hall - The Maroon (loyolamaroon.com)

Why Does Demonic Possession Fare Now Dominate the Horror Genre?

In The Wall Street Journal Arena section yesterday, the lead story was 'Hollywood Gets Possessed'  about how demonic possession films are now dominating the modern horror landscape. This is in some ways not a surprise given the success of one of the most horrific films, 'The Exorcist' - some forty years ago.

As the author, Michal Calia, observes:

"The reborn success of demonic possession in popular culture owes something to the zombie, werewolf and vampire surge of the past decade. Horror movies used to play in theaters to passionate but finite audiences, mostly teens, They'd show up on opening weekends then move on to the next offering."

Adding:

"The new wave of possession films could take scary movies even more into the mainstream. Possession is more personal than vampires and zombies - the threat comes from within."

Which is the underlying point of the horror of possession (assuming one believes in it) and which makes films like 'The Exorcist' relevant even today. Imagine you're a teen flooded with hormones and now experiencing strange and powerful urges you never experienced before.  Of course, if you were exposed to religiosity and especially the nature of "demons" or "Satan" and biblical examples of demonic possession  - one of the things you might fret over is that you were possessed. Another entity was inhabiting your consciousness, sharing it and even dominating at times.

But as the WSJ piece notes, the other reason Hollywood loves this sub-genre is the revived legitimacy in rites like exorcism. Mark Neveldine, the director of "The Vatican Tapes", insists that "Pope Francis is helping drive the new interest in exorcism. The pope is a Jesuit whose members believe in the reality of Satan"

Which is debatable given I knew a number of Jesuits when I attended Loyola University who admonished students to "use critical thinking" when approaching biblical passages with demonic references.  While it is true that exorcism has been taught as part of Catholic theology – as my old Loyola notes show (from one conservative Jesuit),e.g.

  No truly mature and rational priest or Bishop really believes that. It is merely fed to them, like the whole concept of “sin”, to keep the faithful at the level of malleable infants to be controlled. I left the Church precisely because I wanted to be an independent thinker …and doer. Not bound to any silly, centuries old dictates or dogmas.

The WSJ piece also mentions "a 2013 video of Pope Francis praying over a man whose body eventually went slack" and appeared on YouTube (reminding us one must be careful in judging visual media, especially with some of those videos depicting kitties quoting Chaucer - or Obama professing to be a Muslim!)

In the case of the Pope Francis video, the Vatican fortunately put on its 'big boy' robes at the time and issued a statement (ibid):

"The Holy Father has no intention to perform any exorcism. Instead, as he frequently does for the sick and suffering persons who approached him, he simply meant to pray for a suffering person who was presented to him."

A person who likely had epilepsy - experienced a mild seizure - then went slack. No demons were around.

This is not to say, of course, that the Pope doesn't have an interest in demons, Satan and exorcism. But the Pope's belief doesn't make it so. Why the need for Satan, devils, or exorcisms at all? Little known by the demon mongering idiots is that in Yeshua's time, before the dawn of modern psychiatry, ordinary schizophrenia and schizoid personality disorders were commonly believed to be manifestations of  "demonic possession". Thus, we had biblical allegories and stories referring to Christ "casting out" Beelezebub from sick people, and even animals. But modern biblical scholars now understand these were metaphors for seeking cures (at that time) for the mental illness that stalked the population even then.

I believe the other reason exorcism is experiencing something of a revival in Catholic circles - recall a new school for exorcists  The Pope Leo XIII Institute  opened last year "for the “education & training of priests in the holy ministry of exorcism and deliverance” - is that the Church needs to grow its numbers.  What better way, given the decreasing numbers especially in Europe,  than to try and scare the faithful back into the fold?

I mean, if the Church can even get one of every 18 lapsed Catholics to reconsider the faith, they might at some future time stabilize the loss numbers, given how many Africans appear to be adopting it. (Bear in mind also that Catholic numbers in the U.S. are only holding steady because of Mexican immigrants who are predominantly Catholic and have large families.)

Apart from all this religious basis for embracing demonic possession fare, the WSJ also notes:

"Possession stories can also resonate in a society worried about moral decay in general - a growing inability for individuals to take responsibility for their actions and to be held accountable"

So if the person can blurt "the devil made me do it"  he doesn't have to 'fess up to his own inadequacies and nasty nature. He can fob it off on some imaginary being believed to personify evil.

But those of us who wear 'big boy' pants know the source of evil isn't in some mythical demonic entity but in our own brains.  We are all, each of us, saddled with a hybrid brain (paleocortex, mesocortex, neocortex) which behavior is bound to be morally mixed, reflecting the fact that we literally have three brains contending for emergence in one cranium. Behavior will therefore range from the most selfless acts (not to mention creative masterpieces) to savagery, carnal lust run amuck and addictions that paralyze purpose.

The mistake of the orthodox religionist is to associate the first mode of behavior with being human and not the latter. In effect, disowning most of the possible behaviors of which humans are capable.- and hence nine tenths of what makes us what we are. Worse, not only disowning these behaviors – but ascribing them to some antagonistic dark or negative force (“Satan”) thereby making them into a religious abstraction.

Grown ups,  then, can enjoy demonic possession flicks of one sort or other this Halloween (I plan to watch 'The Exorcist" again) but should put them in perspective: nice entertaining horror fare but ultimately having no more basis in reality than the vampire, zombie, werewolf and Frankenstein flicks of old.

Here Come the Devil Mongers Again! Spouting on Exorcisms and Vampires!

"Woe to Ye Who Scoff At Demons!"  So blared one letter-to-the -Editor headline in the Barbados NATION newspaper in 1979, after I'd written an op-ed scoffing at the very notion of demons, the Devil and exorcisms. As I seem to recall I referred to such nonsense as "emanations from brain embolisms" likely spawned by too much hard liquor or drugs.

Well, it's one thing to write or talk of demons in the Barbados context where "Obeah" is still in vogue. It's another to behold demonic references in the supposedly advanced industrial world.  But recent verbal expulsions by assorted padres and even the Pope make one wonder if we've progressed at all from the Dark Ages.

For reference, let's take this recent expatiation:

“There are those who try to turn people into vampires and make them drink other people’s blood, or encourage them to have special sexual relations to obtain special powers,” said Professor Giuseppe Ferrari, head of The Group on Research and Socio-Religious Information, an Italian occult watchdog, at a conference in Rome last week. 

Seriously? Such a dopey group really exists and devotes time to this balderdash? Evidently, as the padre went on:

“These groups are attracted by the so-called beautiful young vampires that we’ve seen so much of in recent years.”

Vampires? I thought that went out with the Count Dracula legends. Don't tell me that this crackpot takes them seriously!   But incredibly Ferrari is no mere fringe exorcist. The guy is actually backed by the Vatican and the Pope himself, who has insisted that dioceses have one trained exorcist on campus to deal with any urgent possessions. (Hmmm...maybe we need to dispatch one to deal with John McAdams!)


Father Cesare Truqui, a Swiss exorcist and protégé of Father Gabriele Amorth (the Vatican’s longtime chief exorcist) who also spoke at the conference, told The Independent  (UK) newspaper that exorcism training is super important but overlooked. According to Truqui:

 “It’s like training to be a journalist without knowing how to do an interview.”

Yes, but see journalists are expected to do interviews about factual events, not humbug or artificial nonsense fabricated by stoners and wackos. (With the possible exception of former NY Times staff reporter Judith Miller  - who almost single-handedly confabulated the march to the Iraq war with WMD propaganda bullshit).

Readers might regard this stuff as flaky but they'd be wrong. In fact, under Pope Francis, who frequently mentions the Devil, exorcisms are booming. Even here in the U.S.last year a new school for exorcists opened in Illinois:. The Pope Leo XIII Institute for the “education & training of priests in the holy ministry of exorcism and deliverance."  If you can believe it! (Well, at least it's close enough to where John McAdams is located to sic an exorcist or two on him if needed!)

According to another padre: Father Francesco Bamonte, president of the Italy-based International Association for Exorcists:

“Diabolical possessions are on the increase as a result of people subscribing to occultism. The few exorcists that we have in the dioceses are often not able to handle the enormous number of requests for help.”

While it is true that exorcism has been taught as part of Catholic theology – as my old Loyola University Theology notes show, e.g.


No truly mature and rational priest or Bishop really believes that. It is merely fed to them, like the whole concept of “sin”, to keep the faithful at the level of malleable infants to be controlled. I left the Church precisely because I wanted to be an independent thinker …and doer. Not bound to any silly, centuries old dictates or dogmas.

But that hasn't halted the new breed of superstitious twits from spreading their malarkey - likely as a tactic to take the heat off the Vatican for the sex abuse scandal.  Cripes, even the Brits - who we usually associate with greater rationality - have invested in this crap.

“Until a few years ago, a significant number of people in the Church didn’t believe in the Devil, but people are now going back to the Scriptures,”

said an unnamed British exorcist priest in an interview with The Telegraph. adding:

“Pope Francis has given a certain amount of encouragement to that. A few years ago at least half the dioceses in England and Wales did not have an exorcist. Now, pretty much all of them do.”

But again, the increase in exorcists doesn't prove there is any bona fide object or entity on which to act. It only proves enough superstitious, paranoid people exist who need the crutch of exorcism to manage their stupid beliefs.

Which is sad and shows regression.  The basic problem with the whole exorcism shtick is that it’s based on primitive, superstitious gibberish.  Namely belief in a demonic entity in the first place. We can probably trace it back to Martin Luther. In his ‘Teufelsbucher’ or Devils’ Books, written from 1545- 1600, he laid out the whole warp and woof of how the Devil involved himself in human affairs.

According to Luther,  the Devil was involved in everything that made life worth living: dressing up, food, party going, dancing to poetry, drama, writing. The Devil was behind virtually all the vices and manifestations of the world. Especially sex! The other bottom line made clear is that Satan was not to be trifled with or taken lightly. Woe to those (like atheists) who did, and all that!

But why the obsession?  Why the need for Satan, devils, or exorcisms at all? Little known by the demon mongering idiots is that in Yeshua's time, before the dawn of modern psychiatry, ordinary schizophrenia and schizoid personality disorders were commonly believed to be manifestations of  "demonic possession". Thus, we had biblical allegories and stories referring to Christ "casting out" Beelezebub from sick people, and even animals. But modern biblical scholars now understand these were metaphors for seeking cures (at that time) for the mental illness that stalked the population even then.

Further,  the Catholic Church's ritual of exorcism was founded and promulgated not on the belief that demonic possession was real, but that the afflicted person believed it was real. Thus, the rite of exorcism was initiated as a memetic template to cure the belief in the person's possession, not any objective possession per se. Up to now, indeed, no one has been able to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that any demonic possession has ever occurred, never mind absurd fictional portrayals like those in 'The Exorcist'.

Doubts that possession was real probably surfaced first just after the period of the Inquisition. This is because the tortures and executions of the Inquisition were self-sustaining, because none of the greatest theological minds could figure out how one might exterminate demons or Devils permanently by killing the allegedly possessed humans. Because they could not be killed, and could still possess humans (according to the Inquisition), then whenever you tortured a heretic or apostate to death  the possessing devil or demon would just skip to another forlorn soul, who in turn would have to be killed. With that possessing demon jumping to another ,…..and so on keeping the Inquisition’s fires and torture wheels going indefinitely.

Eventually, the Church's great brains figured out they could potentially slaughter every single living member of the "Body of Christ" yet not be able to get at the demons or Satan himself! In other words, their own feverish delusions were having them on, leading them to excessive actions and reactions that didn't do a damned thing to advance the welfare of the "Body of Christ".

Adding fuel to Satan-mania was the Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer (Dean of Cologne University) and Jacob Sprenger (Dominican Inquisitor General of Germany). This was the book which gave the prescriptions for exposing those possessed, or under the influence of familiars or witches or other demonic entities (succubi, incubi) under a Bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII.

Because this book allowed persecution to spread to tens of thousands of women - as "witches" - it soon became evident to the best and brightest that belief in demonic possession was in fact a recipe for self-extermination, not purification!

At the very least it meant one half of humanity being exterminated, since generally, throughout the Middle Ages, the belief persisted that the female was closer by far to the demonic hordes, by virtue of her enhanced carnality. Indeed, the demise of male virtue as well as mental power could allegedly be traced to female wiles, and what better way to enhance them than using a herb like savin (given by a witch)

Given the “evidence” of any one or all of these the accused witch could be apprehended and subjected to “the question”. This meant usually prodding her flesh with special instruments to locate the mark of “the Beast” (666) or any similar mark usually associated with the Devil. If a first pass wasn’t enough gradually more pressure and torture would be applied, usually ending up in some sort of disfigurement being found eventually and attributed to the Devil. According to author Peter Stanford (‘The Devil’, 1996, p. 162):

“Witches and warlocks provided an easy target for the Church, intent on rallying the faithful with a bout of demonization”

Probably over a half million innocent women throughout the West underwent such appalling tortures merely to appease savage and depraved minds they didn't have a demon lurking inside them.

Thus, the road to rejecting demonic possession was replete with horrible suffering and endless death. In other words, nearly 2 million innocent humans had to be brutalized, maimed or slaughtered, before humans (at least in the West) figured out that retaining a belief in demonic possession did not redound to their benefit.

Sadly, while the curse of belief in demonic possession had retreated in the more enlightened West (thanks to the continuing benefits of rational skepticism and the Enlightenment) these dark ideas now seem to be making a comeback, thanks to anti-rationalists in the Church - as well as a 24/7 media that can't get enough bull crap to broadcast.

Is there a way to cure or limit the spread of demonic obsession as manifested in reviving rites of exorcism and sensationalizing them for the sake of a passing publicity (given how the Church loses more members each year)"

Not too likely. Decades of research discloses only limited value for psychotherapy, and in any case, the true believers and upper echelon (priest, bishops, ministers, preachers) are seldom subjected to treatments, only their forlorn victims.

What is needed is a non-negotiable agreement or contract that obligates anyone who practices religion in any form to reject demon-mongering – including all exorcisms or other manifestations that even indirectly validate the Satan-Hell myth.. And – if they do not – they must submit themselves for "demonic expurgation" by whichever method works the best and drives demonic belief from their brains.

Probably the optimum method right now is electro-convulsive therapy (ECT). Much different from the antiquated version (shown for example in the movie, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'), the new ECT uses milli-amp range bursts for brief periods of seconds to re-energize and renew the brain for improved reality cognition.

I warrant if ECT stations replaced all the exorcists, and people could be treated for their "possessions" 24/7 we'd see a dramatic fall in this bull shit. But, of course, the response of the exorcists and the Vatican would likely be that "demonically possessed people are proposing this as a way to avoid detection".

And so it goes.