Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
2005)
DOI: 10.1007/sl0943-004-1142-9
The
Evidence
Growing
"Demonic
for
Possession":
Should
What
Psychiatry's
be?
Response
STAFFORD BETTY
is voluminous
and comes from many
both ancient
cultures,
spirits
are examined
The
and evaluated.
States
India, and the United
of spirit
of spirit victims,
the universality
the superhuman
actual
experience
phe
oppression,
vs.
success
nomena
of deliverance
and exorcism
and the comparative
with
associated
"possession,"
on the ante
are considered.
the spirit hypothesis
center
Potential
arguments
against
psychiatry
ABSTRACT:
Evidence
and modern.
Cases
of evil
from
China,
of spirits, multiple
and the effectiveness
of medication;
disorder,
personality
their materialist
should
that
countered.
assumption
question
Psychiatrists
a matter
of pos
is strictly
of an aberrant
examine
the literature
mental
illness
brain,
carefully
to determine
and deliverance
where
exorcists
ministers
often
succeed
session,
experiment
why
a more
for healing
of techniques
the complete
fails, and develop
complete
psychiatry
inventory
person.
cedent
improbability
can be
but
these
KEY
WORDS:
demonic
possession,
spirits,
deliverance,
exorcism,
psychiatry.
Introduction
was devoted
or
A great deal of Jesus' ministry
to exorcising
"evil spirits"
accounts
in
"demons." Seven
the
(Matthew, Mark,
Synoptic
specific
Gospels
show him
them out of their human
All over the
victims.
Luke)
casting
to
Third World
down
the
both
right
present
day, "spirits,"
good and bad,
as realities
are taken for granted
that share our world and sometimes
must
are commonplace
be dealt with. Exorcisms
South
and
Southeast
throughout
and South America,
and sub-Saharan
Central
and there is no
Africa;
are
in
the
world
where
unknown.
Before
the
Re
Communist
they
place
a
was
a
out
in
evil
China
normal
Taoist
volution,
spirits
casting
part of
to Catholic
Malachi
States,
job. In the United
priest's
according
theologian
Asia,
L.
Stafford
University,
Religious
studies.
Ph.D.
of Philosophy
and Religious
Studies.
Department
Betty,
Bakersfield.
CA 93311.
Dr. Betty
Bakersfield,
Sbetty@csubak.edu.
in the philosophy
Studies
of religion
in spiritual
and
specializing
He is married
with five children.
State
California
is a Professor
of
and
paranormal
13 ? 2005 Blanton-Peale
Institute
14
was
increase
in the number
"a 750 percent
of Exorcisms
the
1960s
and
between
the
mid-1970s"
1992,
(Martin,
early
performed
to
of
the
Dom
Robert
editor
p. xviii). And in England,
Petitpierre,
according
on
"incidents
demonic
of
"Exeter
interference
exorcism,
Anglican
Report"
. . . since
an explosion"'
1960 have become
(Malia, 2001, p. 66).
'virtually
of this journal
think that "spirits," at least
of readers
Yet the vast majority
or possess
the kind that oppress
of
us, are not real. Indeed the very raising
to
Do evil spirits molest
us? seems to most
of us like a return
the question,
Martin,
there
In a dreamlike
be greeted with derision.
state of
Ages and might
in
The
the agnostic
Brothers
Karamazov,
Ivan,
Dostoevsky's
yells at
are
are
someone
are
not
I and
the devil,
you
"No, you
apart, you
myself,
are rubbish,
more!
You
you are my
1957,
(Dostoevsky,
fancy!"
nothing
all of us?
Ivan speak for almost
p. 582). Doesn't
the Dark
delirium
evidence
Yet there is mounting
and oc
today that evil spirits do oppress
even possess
or
the unwary,
the weak,
the unprepared,
the unlucky,
casionally
the targeted.
Imean and do not mean by "evil"
let me clarify both what
Before proceeding,
or "demonic spirits." I don't mean anything
like devils with tails and pitchforks
fell from heaven with Lucifer and have been cursed by God to an eternal
life
a
us
to
in some cosmic ghetto,
similar
from where
under
they tempt
perdition
of a head devil named Satan; none of what
I say here is based on
the leadership
or any other theology
or mythology.
Christian
By "evil spirits" Imean more or
who
The
evidence
sources.
of evil spirits
and comes from many
is voluminous
Evidence
One
source is Spiritualism.
In the first half of the twentieth
it was common
century
to conduct
for Spiritualists
"earth-bound"
"spirit help" sessions where
spirits
were
to counseling.
led to freedom by methods
This gentle
form of
analogous
we meet
In India, right up to
elsewhere.
are
and
often
forcibly
present
day,
spirits
spectacularly
Until
in China, Taoist
evicted from their victims by holy men
(babas).
recently
in the
sometimes
conducted
against malevolent
spirits
priests
epic battles
them
their
In
the
victims.
several
from
of
West,
prominent
hope
expelling
to the possibility
of "demonic"
their minds
have
op
opened
psychologists
in exorcisms.
And
and participated
their evidence,
gone public with
pression,
to leave the
in Christian
"deliverance"
circles, demons are forcibly commanded
exorcism
the
oppressed
oppression
is very
different
from what
earth-bound
15
Stafford Betty
cases
etc.?I will report the following
"ostensible,"
"putative,"
tion?"alleged,"
am
as if the spirits were real. It should not be assumed,
I
that
however,
myself
certain of this.)
Spiritualism
In 1924 Dr.
a psychiatrist
in Los Angeles,
Carl Wickland,
practicing
pub
he
lished 30 Years Among
the Dead, a unique record of verbatim
conversations
as
Wickland
his
wife
medium.
divided
his
book
had with departed
spirits using
into chapters based on what kind of spirit spoke through his wife. Some, both
tormented
others had been criminals,
women;
deaths,
to spirits who were
is devoted
One chapter
alcoholics
to "drink" through
earth life and continue,
their victims.
after death,
case Wickland
the
talks to a spirit who has been parasitically
using
and
before
still
after
others
during
In one
body
their
suicides.
of a woman
named
the
uses
"Mrs. V" to drink. Wickland
transfers
the spirit to his wife's
electric
shock to
a trained
body,
body, the spirit is addressed
by
in
the spirit to leave. Eventually
who tries to persuade
he succeeds
is
the
understand
who
he
that
he
he
has
that
is,
died,
spirit
making
ruining a
can
for
that
woman's
and
he
As
the
himself.
session
ends, the
life,
get help
deceased
Wickland
his
the
account
closes
mother,
departs.
spirit, guided by
a
a
with these words:
"After the foregoing
friend reported
marked
experience
dislodge
Spiritualist
Wickland,
spirit,
medium.
then
Once
inside
his wife's
in Mrs.
in India
Spirit possession
as Mrs. Vs. When
most
Unfortunately,
they are
spirits are not as obliging
as they are by most
treated rudely or violently,
all over the world,
exorcists
a spectacle
of themselves.
India is typical.
they often make
A spirit healer
inWestern
as is
India is called a baba ("father," "holy man"),
the god he works with and who gives him power to heal.
use
will
the
term
(I
to the human
here to refer exclusively
The way
it works
is this. A
healer.)
is deranged?we
pressed,
manic-depressive,
healer
by her family. As
person
visibly
within
who
agitated.
her does.
use words
would
like severely
de
or
to
the
schizophrenic,
psychotic?is
brought
she approaches
the temple,
she usually
becomes
Or rather
the earthbound
called a bhut
spirit,
("ghost"),
Once the healing ritual
is underway,
the body of the victim
in the West
becomes
bhut. At the climax of the
completely
possessed
by the tormenting
a tray of lights (arati) in front of each of the victims.
the baba waves
ritual,
These
lights embody the power of the baba and the sponsoring
god, and there
so agitating
is apparently
to a bhut. The body of the person may fall
nothing
into a cataleptic
trance, or moan and shake, or bash its head against a wall, or
exhibit
many
bizarre
of supernatural
force. John M. Stanley
interviewed
gyrations
a
in
at
victims
the
1970s
center
in
spirit
Pune,
India, after their
healing
16
recovery
in China
Spirit possession
Taoist Peter
The Russian
Taoist
day of a three-day
a horrifying
of the last
account
Goullart
presents
near
at a monastery
that he observed
exorcism
a
are
when
in
with
the
told
farmer
1920s.
We
what
young
happened
Shanghai
"a wild,
abbott
by a Taoist
roving look in his fevered
eyes" was approached
of wisdom
and authority"
"an elongated
the symbol
ivory tablet,
holding
commanded
the spirits?for
there were
1961, p. 86). The abbott
(Goullart,
come out of the man
Taoist
two?to
in the name of Shang Ti, the supreme
The spirits
"out of the energumen's
cursed
the abbott
distorted
in a strange,
if
sounded mechanical,
shrill voice, which
inhuman?as
a
Then
the
havoc
"With
87).
(Goullart,
1961,
p.
parrot"
by
began.
pronounced
to swell visibly. On
unutterable
horror, we saw that [the man's
body] began
until he became a grotesque
continued
balloon of a
and on the dreadful process
Godhead.
mouth
man."
"streams
as the
Then,
of malodorous
credible
profusion."
tinued for an hour
were not finished:
abbott
This
until
more
commanded
fiercely,
on to the ground
in in
an
con
stench,
by
accompanied
appalling
normal
size.
But
resumed
the
finally
spirits
concentrated
excreta
process,
the man
and
effluvia
and
flowed
Another scene of horror evolved itself before our dazed eyes. The man on the bed
became rigid and his muscles
seemed to contract, turning him into a figure of
stone.
very
Slowly,
slowly,
the
iron
bedstead,
as
if
impelled
by
an
enormous
and
asked
The
where
exorcist
that had
he was. He had no memory
of anything
was
to
and
be
exhausted
had
helped
completely
17
Stafford Betty
in the United
Exorcism
States
at the Vatican's
and former professor
theologian
in
to
1976
the Devil:
The
Institute,
published
Hostage
most
Americans.
This
is
the
and
and Exorcism
Five
Possession
convincing
of
on the subject.
It was praised
New
authoritative
book available
the
York
by
Post Book Review, Newsweek,
the Psy
the Washington
Times Book Review,
a
and
other
Book
host
of
when
it
Club,
prominent
chology Today
publications
in 1983 M. Scott Peck,
first appeared. We shall come back to it below. Then
Malachi
Catholic
Martin,
Biblical
Pontifical
of the hugely
and author
psychiatrist
popular
self-help
book The Road
the psychiatric
Less
startled
Traveled,
community
by
con
in two exorcisms.
Peck
his participation
says he personally
describing
fronted a profoundly
evil spirit on both occasions.
one of the Chinese
of ways
these Christian
In a number
exorcisms
remind
Harvard-educated
account
reveal themselves
to be utterly
and horrifyingly
demons
to
their
with
victims
unbelievable
and exhibit
they cling
tenacity
a
the
and
exorcism
of
lot
often
several
time,
strength;
superhuman
requires
are
to
the
demons
after
divine
assis
Further,
complete.
days,
only
expelled
to the ex
tance is called on repeatedly,
and the entire ordeal is exhausting
above.
The
malevolent;
orcist
and his
Peck
tells
team.
us
that
he observed
"were gravely
ill from a
patients
their exorcisms"
(Peck, 1983, p. 202), yet that
was
state
of these patients
the mental
dramatically
the
two
before
psychiatric
after
the
standpoint
exorcisms
in control of
improved. As one of the victims
put it, "Before, the voices were
now
I'm in control of the voices" (Peck, 1983, p. 198). Following
additional
me;
a full recovery.
the voices died out and both patients made
psychotherapy,
in the United
States
as far as we know," writes Peck, "is very rare" (Peck,
possession,
it fits?for
the
1983, p. 183). "We should use the word possession
only when
rare Charles Mansons
of the world," writes
Francis MacNutt
(1995, p. 73), a
on evil spirits.
former Catholic
and leading
In MacNutt's
authority
priest
most
are merely
under
the
influence
of
evil
experience
people
spirits
Deliverance
"Genuine
MacNutt
believes
that many mentally
ill people?both
within
and outside of
institutions?are
the
oppressed
by spirits. These
spirits range from
to the "dead who are not at rest" (MacNutt,
truly Satanic
1995, p. 93). These
latter are not so much
evil as confused. Yet in their blind selfishness
these
"earthbound
if unintended,
harm.
In relation
to us,
spirits" can do serious,
mental
therefore,
they
are "evil."
18
Journal
of Religion
and Health
are being
delivered
oppressing
spirit or spirits
the signs
summarizes
under
three
headings:
in the voice, and changes
in facial expression"
"bodily contortions,
changes
are reminiscent
of the
(MacNutt,
1995, p. 77). MacNutt's
generalizations
we
cases
victims
above. Spirit
sometimes
show supernatural
Asian
surveyed
or strength.
while
still others
They "may arch their spines backward,
agility
What
happens
a victim?
from
an
when
MacNutt
mannered
person
1995,
(MacNutt,
a foreign
occasions
writes:
MacNutt
may
begin
p. 78). Often
and unseemly
and
bodily postures
"the tone of the person's
voice
or
in a husky
like a man,
voice
a
tone
in
snide,
speaking
insulting
the
voice
is spoken.
language
As
uses
motions
changes.
a mild
of voice"
been
shouting
remember
curses
nothing
at
or
you,
thrashing
around
screaming,
but
Evaluation
not
of the evidence
of apparent
do we do with all this evidence
In parti
spirit oppression?
can
with
of
the
it
materialist
be
worldview
Western
cular,
squared
psychiatry?
or can we
to be place within
Is "spirit oppression"
marks,
quotation
always
leave them off? Are "spirits" the hallucinations
of a sick brain, or do they have
What
19
Stafford Betty
an
as we
are.
do we find when
four headings.
of the victim
Experience
an argument
now
Let us begin with
from introspection.
A spirit victim,
us
an
contact with
he made
intimate
tells
mal
healed,
invisible,
intelligent,
evolent "something"
that seemed completely
alien to him. "Solemnly
and of my
own free will, I wish to acknowledge
that knowingly
and freely I entered
into
one of Malachi
Martin's
five possessed
possession
by an evil spirit," wrote
some months
exorcism
after his successful
persons
(Martin, 1992, p. 403). Is it
as having no possible
such a confession
proper to dismiss
validity? Are any of
us in a better position
to speak with
about some of the
epistemic
authority
most mysterious
"facts" of our own experience? When we assure ourselves
that
we are free and not determined
from philosophy),
do
(to take but one example
we have
evidence?
Libertarians
and determinists
end
any finally
convincing
on
back
and
forth
to
without
conclusion
the
matter.
any
lessly argue
coming
Indeed
it is hard enough making
the notion
of a genuinely
free
intelligible
so that many
are driven to the scarcely
much
will?so
intelligible
compromise
called soft determinism.
Yet almost all of us believe
in free will implicitly
and
live by that belief. Why?
our direct experience
an au
Because
speaks with
a
that
manner
In
silences
all
similar
the
direct
thority
arguments.
experience
of possession
of victims
force to spiritual
points with
equal psychological
possession.
Universality
If spirit
region,
were unique
or religion
or geographical
to one culture
oppression
it would be to me highly
or evil spirits
would
bothersome
suspect. Why
20
Journal
of Religion
and Health
that
"pick on" only one kind of people? The fact that they do not discriminate,
are as prevalent
in India and China as in the
their passions
and machinations
that they work their mischief
all over the
Christian
(or post-Christian)
West,
us take them more seriously. What are taken to be spirits behave
world makes
or Chinese
or
in the same generic way whether
they oppress Americans
cause
They
or superhuman
phenomena
account
When we read Goullart's
of the Taoist abbott exorcising
the demons
we
do
the
what
make
from the Chinese
of
of
We
farmer,
symptoms
possession?
a
see a man who blows up like a balloon,
exudes
pool of excreta from his pores as
Unnatural
time
or that he was
better diagnosis
a correct
In medicine
possessed
by an alien
spirit?
The
If a physician
mis
a
the patient
him than under
diagnoses,
different
who
it is likely that a
correctly
diagnoses.
Conversely,
physician
treatment
is sounder
than a second
leading to successful
physician's
diagnosis
or less successful
to unsuccessful
treatment.
All
leading
diagnosis
physician's
of this is self-evident.
or psychosis
that suggest
has symptoms
If a patient
to a
schizophrenia
is essential
to healing.
diagnosis
is much
less likely to heal under
but
to an exorcist,
psychotherapist,
possession
come
not
to
treatment
is
from
We
successful
both.
would
equally
likely
expect
was
cor
that the reason
worked
it more
the more
successful
that
approach
the
rectly diagnosed
problem.
typical
Western-trained
21
Stafford Betty
. . .
succeeds,
which
approach
approach
chlorpromazine
and
or at least
related
medications
for
schizophrenia
have
often
been
But
of getting
well higher
than with
but the
any other treatment,
probability
of getting
is
residual
less"
likelihood
1999, p. 133). ECT is
symptoms
(Horgan,
a much more
was
it
exact science
than
back
in
the 20s when
Carl
today
was zapping patients
to rid them of possessing
Wickland
(see above),
spirits
but the treatment
the same.
is essentially
Now for the spiritual.
Do exorcists
and deliverance
ministers
fare any better
I wish
than psychiatrists?
I could tell you the Chinese
farmer who was freed
from two demons and fully recovered his normal personality
stayed cured, but
a trained
does not tell us. What
Goullart
about the Indian cases? Stanley,
a
us
more
on:
to
social scientist,
little
go
gives
All healing centers claim a high percentage of cure for victims (of possession) who
come regularly to arati sessions. Most of the cures are said to require only a few
weeks; some, as long as a year. Although Iwas not able to test these claims in any
rigorous way, my conversations with spirit victims and friends and relatives of
victims, as well as with people who had been cured, confirmed the claims without
exception. Nearly all who come regularly are, after a certain period of time, fully
restored to feeling their former selves. Some few do come to sessions regularly for
22
Journal
of Religion
and Health
years without complete recovery, but even in these "incurable" cases the relatives
and friends of the victim report that the sessions help the individual a great
that they feel much better immediately after an arati session.
deal?especially
(Stanley, 1988, p. 40)
I see no reason
to doubt
the veracity
of Stanley's
report. He is careful not to
are
cases?and
there
he has taken
incurable
acknowledges
exaggerate?he
care to interview many
in a variety
And he allows
of conditions.
that
people
to return until they are convinced
it
the possessing
spirits have a tendency
for them
to retire permanently.
be more
comfortable
his
would
Moreover,
are supported
of possession-type
in other
by witnesses
phenomena
findings
2000).
parts of India (Dalrymple,
in the United
Back
States,
psychiatrist
is an effective
that exorcism
cisms, holds
in two exor
Peck,
participant
cure?the
cure?in
effective
only
"Difficult and dangerous
situations:
certain
the
exorcisms
they were,
though
were
I cannot
how otherwise
I witnessed
successful.
the two pa
imagine
are
I
been
both
alive
and
healed.
tients
could have
very well
They
today.
reason
to
not
have
believe
that had they
had their exorcisms
every
they
each be dead
would
MacNutt
adds:
by now"
(Peck,
1983,
p. 189). And
deliverance
minister
I once prayed for a young woman who had been confined in a mental hospital for
twelve years, suffering from schizophrenia. After two hours of prayer for healing
the glazed look in her eyes left and she was able to converse in a
and deliverance,
normal way. Several weeks later the doctors recognized a dramatic change in her
I could cite many more examples
behavior and released her from the hospital.
... unable to find help from
or
from a steady stream of supplicants
psychotherapy
from those who are ministers
of religion who had not learned to deal with the
demonic. (MacNutt, 1995, p. 23)
writes
and
Huston
on
is present.
Most
these
successes,
expertise
required
important,
are
as
were
in
Peck's
two
in
total,
usually
they
exorcisms,
they occur,
case
a
in
and
Martin's
five
As
it is im
studies,
result,
Stanley's
samples.
at the surprising
to avoid
conclusion?at
least for the
possible
arriving
are real and that they sometimes
or pos
evil spirits
moment?that
obsess
when
the
when
sess
work?
taking
works
if they were
not real,
as
well
just
bring about
an exorcism
then why would
a
cure
cancer by
for
stomach
might
Is it not reasonable
to conclude
out the appendix.
that exorcism
con
so dramatically,
and permanently
in cases where
completely,
the
One
living.
For
23
Stafford Betty
ventional
ailment
fails because
psychiatry
has
and the psychiatrist
and further
Counterarguments
There
Here
the
exorcist
has
correctly
diagnosed
the
not?
evaluation
some worse,
against
this
conclusion.
disorder
(MPD)
or
"dissociative
renamed
disorder,"
(recently
by clinicians
identity
a
a
common
in which
disorder
DID) is
secondary
fairly
psychiatric
personality
one. The primary
or core
itself from the primary
splits off and dissociates
is almost always unaware
of the secondary
one, called an "alter."
personality
it surfaces,
The alter has a life of its own, and when
the core personality
"goes
Multiple
MPD
personality
is usually
unlike
by the alter, which
strikingly
a
think
"evil
that
so-called
possessing
spirit"
psychiatrists
is in reality nothing more than an alter. Occam's Razor states that the simpler
a theory or diagnosis
it is?as
for all the
is, the better
long as it accounts
as
introduce
such dubious
relevant
data or phenomena.
So why
entities
a
common
when
disorder
will
suffice?
"spirits"
personality
underground"
the primary.
and
is displaced
Most
is a sound principle,
and MPD
is often the correct diagnosis
Occam's Razor
no
a
to
when
bizarre
behavior
relation
basic personality
bearing
patient's
turns
But
not
account
MPD
does
for
all
data here.
the relevant
up.
suddenly
in MPD
to Peck,
the core personality,
"is virtually
First,
according
always
unaware
of the existence
of the secondary
least until close to
personalities?at
successful
treatment."
the very end of prolonged,
But in cases of spirit op
are "either aware from the beginning
or [are] readily made
patients
pression
aware not only of the self-destructive
part of them but also that this part [has]
a distinct
and alien personality"
(Peck, 1983, pp. 192-193).
Second,
trying to
cast out an alter is, according
to MacNutt,
"an impossible
task since these
are mostly
of the person's
alters
1995,
(MacNutt,
fragments
personality"
out an oppressing
but likely
p. 231). Yet casting
spirit is not only possible
when
the necessary
is available.
expertise
The above considerations
do not prove the spiritual hypothesis,
but they do
indicate
that
cannot
be re
fairly decisively
spiritual
oppression/possession
to MPD.
Thus Occam's
Razor
is of little help
to the MPD-favoring
since MPD,
theorist
the simpler
it avoids cluttering
because
theory?simpler
our world with invisible
entities
like "spirits"?fails
to account for all the data.
A potentially
useful
escape valve has been sealed off to the materialist.
duced
The effectiveness
of drugs
A potentially
strong argument
against
and ECT do have an impact on the brain
the
and
is that
spirit-hypothesis
on the inner life of many
drugs
men
24
Journal
of Religion
and Health
this
line of reasoning
goes,
is an illness of the brain,
to see why drugs have an
it is ludicrous
to
Indeed,
chase away demons.
it must
be granted
that,
the mentally
minister
that all
the
of
evil
for
presence
by
spirits. MacNutt,
example,
as a licensed
that his wife,
when
clients
Judith,
reports
counselling
psy
"ended up praying with
chotherapist,
[only] about a third of them to be freed
from the influence
of evil spirits" (MacNutt,
that in
1995, p. 67). This suggests
even a therapist
as sensitive
the other two-thirds,
to the presence
of oppres
them in only a minority
of cases. American
sing spirits as his wife, diagnosed
between
afflictions
that are "purely emotional"
clergy commonly
distinguish
are
and those that
This distinction
the deli
"spiritual."
prevails
throughout
verance ministry.
mental
illness
is caused
vironment
in the brain for oppressing
diseases
spirits? After all, cures of many
are administered
both topically
ECT be the topical ap
and internally. Might
an oppressive
proach to expelling
brain, and medica
spirit from the victim's
tion the internal? Not
to consider
such a possibility,
however
is
heterodox,
unscientific.
A demon
behind
every bush
One might
could lead to a kind of madness.
object that a spiritual
etiology
the existence
to obsess us, it might
of evil spirits' ability
admitted
be
Having
25
Stafford Betty
Much
existence
of
be
to see how
a backward
giving
step.
to acknowledge
the
refusal
by the West's
a dim view
that excludes
of any therapy
It is possible
the West
took a
that
picture.
spirits
from the
healing
under
the
step long ago when,
to give spirits
their
refused
dogmatically
been harmed
by this refusal.
should
could
is mystified
and takes
spiritual
backward
What
it is hard
it
spell of scientific materialism,
of us might
due. Millions
have
we conclude?
Dr. Peck
wrote
mental
would
constitute
illness.
such evidence?
Replicability,
says science.
And
I agree.
But what would it take to satisfy the demand for replicability? Would the horrific
phenomena
that bends
reported by Goullart?including
or the horribly
iron bedsteads
the weighed-down
body resembling
inflated
rock-like body
a balloon?be
26
on demand?
because
they could not be replicated
one
in
in
exorcisms?
turned up
How many
deli
only
twenty
and exorcists would have to share their stories in the serious
and magazines
took note? How many
before scientists
like
exorcisms
journals
case would
it take to convince
the Chinese
the entrenched
of SCICOP
skeptics
from
disqualified
Or because
they
verance ministers
consideration
occasional
and videotaped
of l?vitation
by reputable
think
concluded
have
really
than
he must
nothing more
I believe
will always
that this sort of intransigent
those
skepticism
plague
evidence
find much
for a dualist
of reality. Dualism,
be
interpretation
our own immediate
with
has an enormous
{our bodies),
experience
ginning
an explanation
in its favor. But it fails to provide
amount
of evidence
of how
and material
that
immaterial
as
substances
is
interaction
almost
interact;
as
was
it
it.
when
Plato
And
mysterious
today
many people reject
championed
who
it for that
pression,
with
all those queer
reason?along
on it.
that symbiotically
depend
experiences,
such
as spirit
op
of our
I believe
that the evidence
subject,
to think
that Jesus'
of
interpretation
on the mark.
is at least sometimes
If it is, the implications
for us
Most
if an alien
would
be significant.
importantly,
spiritual
being could in
a
an
teract with a living brain, that would
that
inborn spiri
fortiori
suggest
we call a soul?could
interact with
it. If so, materialism
tual being?what
have to be discarded,
and some form of dualism would
would
it. In
replace
once
life
would
become
after
death
And
the
human
addition,
again.
plausible
In spite
of the mysteriousness
here provides
good
surveyed
mental
illness
will, no
freedom
reason
And with
without
that
re
27
Stafford Betty
to the philosopher's
artful dodge of "soft determinism."
Even God
more
seem
a
such
after
facelift.
If
might
comely
metaphysical
spirits, demonic
or otherwise,
came to be regarded by intelligent men and women
as real, Spirit
would
at
its
the
take
controls.
again
place
sorting
What
should
be?
response
psychiatry's
research.
article
titled "The Delusion
of Possession
in Chronically
journal
Psychotic
Patients"
were
et
there
to "delusional
references
(Goff
al., 1991),
frequent
and "the delusion
of possession"
in the 25 of 61 psychotic
out
possession"
who
believed
never
themselves
It
to
occurred
the au
patients
possessed.
thors that some of those patients
And not too
might
really be possessed.
the lead article,
"The Schizophrenic
many months
ago in Newsweek,
Mind,"
never mentioned
Even
the author
described
schizo
possession.
though
. . .
as "one of the most
of mental
and went
illnesses"
phrenia
mysterious
on
is
largely unknown,"
she, and all the doctors
without
that
the illness was
caused
question
"In paranoid
brain.
con
she
schizophrenia,"
"the patient
becomes
convinced
of beliefs at odds with reality, hears
tinued,
voices that aren't there or sees images that exist nowhere
but in his mind"
was
she
Since
46).
she
2002, p.
(Begley,
supported
by every psychiatrist
?
felt
to
she
it
this
claim
it
indeed
interviewed,
unnecessary
question
may
never have occurred
to her to question
it. But what
is the evidence,
after
or the images he sees "exist
all, that the voices heard by the schizophrenic
nowhere
but in his mind"? This is an assumption,
not a fact. It may well be
that the voices belong
to realities
see. Does
that we cannot
our inability
to
see them make
them unreal? To a certain kind of materialist,
yes. But what
about the rest of us? More
to the point, does the evidence
here
surveyed
to
materialism?
If anything,
taken all together
it points
point conclusively
some force in the opposite
with
direction.
whom
is a telling
tering Images where
There
moment
in English
two of her characters
the 1930s:
"Do they still perform
"Nowadays
it's
generally
exorcisms
regarded
author Susan
are discussing
in the Church
as
a somewhat
Howatch's
exorcism.
of England?"
unsavoury
superstition."
novel
The
Glit
time
is
28
Journal
of Religion
and Health
character
in.
for what
they believe
article makes
it appear
brings us back to the brain. The Newsweek
to millions
that the cause of all mental
illness
is faulty
of readers
brain
?
no discussion
I hope I have
needed!
shown here that this un
chemistry
is unwarranted.
examined
assumption
better
evidence
This
with
assumption
philosophical
rigor.
Especially
a
that
be a mix
of two different
person might
possibility
in harmony
of reality working
when
the person
is mentally
kinds
heal
in
not.
and
when
The
of
invisible
the mix
should
part
disharmony
thy
or a mere
to be unreal
not be assumed
of brain
states
epiphenomenon
the
above
the
it is invisible.
That reasoning
would
lead to the assumption
to physicists,
an
which
is enormously
is merely
mysterious
is either
or a mere
that electricity,
since
unreal
invisible,
can say that the spiritual
of the visible
epiphenomenon
light bulb! Who
is not
like electricity?
of the person
it is at least
component
Surely
that the visible
soul's instrument
brain is the invisible
and that
possible
the instrument
the soul empowers
powers up the light
just as electricity
bulb.
just because
that gravity,
or
illusion;
2. Study
Over
the
literature
responsible
last 40 years,
university
of books
dozens
dealing
investigating
paranormal
phenomena.
and medical
have
doctors
near-death
ap
produced
experience,
and possession;
and several
sci
reincarnation,
paritions,
mediumship,
at
these
entific
great
phenomena
investigate
journals
length. Obviously
to be skeptical
is much
here
and indeed
there
there are frauds
about,
a
off
the
buck
who
drink up every
gullible
simpletons
aplenty making
as
if it were
these
about
Coca
fascinating
perennially
subjects
thing
a
assume
on
mistake
to
that
But
it
book
is
Cola.
the para
every
great
the
professors
the
with
29
Stafford Betty
a career
or Kenneth
has made
who
1974,
1987);
Ring,
most
in
blind
the
near-death
(NDE),
recently
people,
experience
studying
an NDE
from their bodies during
who recover
they separate
sight when
conclusions
of these two, as well
1999). The tentative
(Ring and Cooper,
as many
are
of
careful
fruit
research
and should be
the
extremely
others,
in
interested
the human
studied
by psychiatrists
mapping
carefully
(Stevenson,
mind.
Such
study
would
almost
wean
invariably
the
student
from
He might
easy materialist
assumptions.
would
be only after a struggle.
Many
to some kind of spirit-body
dualism.
convert
feel to them like the
to bolster
the dying
old
epicenter
theory
Materialism
in the
used
would
sixteenth
too
it
but
would
begin
to
century
the Co
of the universe
before
theory
geocentric
For
would
Revolution
took
hold.
materialism
fail
them,
simply
pernican
to account
facts.
for too many
to determine
3. Conduct
the tools and techniques
of the
research
whether
work better than the drugs and therapies
minister
exorcist and deliverance
a few battle-tested
Allow
of the psychiatrist.
exorcists
and deliverance
to work with
institutions
victims
that psychiatry
are encouraging,
the findings
far
promulgate
tens
of
to
for
the
of
needed
millions
and wide. Then write
dollars
grants
to
that
be
trials
further test the spiritual
appear
techniques
working.
Many
I predict
will be needed
and the most
devised.
experiments
sophisticated
this research will have been done and that
that by the end of this century
But why wait for another
50 years? All it takes
the results will be startling.
on the line in the interest
is for one brave doctor to put his reputation
of
?
?
and get started.
I have
and compassion
truth
(If it is any consolation,
on the line where
I work.)
put mine
now
on the
will do another
from
Newsweek
lead article
50
years
Perhaps
ministers
cannot
into mental
help. If initial
results
instead
of saying
that the paranoid
mind. And
schizophrenic
schizophrenic
at odds with
of beliefs
"becomes
convinced
voices
that aren't
reality, hears
but in his mind,"
that exist nowhere
there or sees images
the article will
or mischievous
certain
that a hostile
report that "in some cases it is almost
to hear voices and see
its victim
being causes
spiritual
not from the mind
of the victim but from the mind
turns
out to be the case, then psychiatry
will have
of
its
curriculum
the
medical
head,
schools,
redesign
of healing
illness ?
all types of mental
those
business
in
the
those
of
that
the
brain,
originate
chemistry
interacts
those
either
victim.
with
and may
negatively
in a meddlesome
originate
or without
its victim's
with
that
the
alter
or hostile
permission,
that emanate
images
of the spirit."
If that
to turn
itself on its
and
that
soul
get
about
the
in the
originate
that constantly
of the
and
brain,
presence
spiritual
targeting,
the soul or brain
of its
chemistry
30
Journal
of Religion
and Health
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