A
Apotheosis
Guest
Demon Possession and Mental Illness: Should we be making a differential diagnosis?
Source -
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=21888
Terrance Cottrell Jr. was winding down his summer in Milwaukee, getting ready for a new school year at a new school. The boy did not live the untroubled life of other 8-year-old children, suffering as he did from autism
, and his mother would be sending him to a school better able to deal with his condition. Then one Sunday morning in August he was made the focus of a religious ceremony of a kind that still mystifies most of the public.
The Cottrell family minister, Ray Hemphill, performed an exorcism to cast out demons and thereby heal Terrance of his condition. The faithful gathered around the boy in their storefront Apostolic church and held him on the ground even as he struggled against them. Because of his diminished capacity to communicate, a result of autism, Terrance was unable to tell the pastor he could not breathe. After two hours of prayers for exorcism, someone finally noticed the boy wasn't breathing. Hemphill was arrested, and once more the public interest was alive with debate and fascination about exorcism.
Who, after all, is performing these ceremonies? Have we not learned from modern psychiatry
that mental illness is not caused by demonic possession? Or was C.S. Lewis correct in saying, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was in convincing the world he didn't exist"?
Most of what the popular culture knows about exorcism and demonic possession is gleaned from "The Exorcist," a film classic that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Since its release, this imaginative horror picture, based on the novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, has whetted an appetite and widespread interest in exorcism that in turn has produced other films, books and broadcasts that have tended to encourage the practice.
Biblical literalists point to exorcisms performed by Jesus, citing Luke 8:26-40 and Mark 1:23-36. These accounts, as well as Ephesians 6:10-18, which are seen as a charter for spiritual warfare, gave rise to the practice of exorcism among early Christians.
As a functionary of the Christian Church, the role of exorcist as an official office is mentioned in a letter by Pope Cornelius in 253, reports John L. Allen Jr. in the National Catholic Reporter. The practice continued within the church but became less popular following the Enlightenment, which brought with it Western rationalism and a bias toward science. The minor order of exorcism nonetheless remained a part of the regular training of priests for ordination.
This wasn't changed until 1972, when Pope Paul VI removed the order of exorcism from the training of every priest and left it to the bishop of each diocese to appoint an exorcist. The rite and rule of exorcism stayed the same until 1998, when the Vatican released a revision. The new rule acknowledges that many of the conditions that once were thought to result from demonic possession now are recognized as mental disorders. On the other hand the Vatican stated quite clearly that the devil is at work in the world and Christians must beware.
Few express concern that the devil is sending his minions out to seize and possess souls better than the Vatican's appointed exorcist, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth. At age 75 he has been a priest for 50 years and tells the London Sunday Telegraph's Gyles Brandreth, "I speak with the devil every day. I talk to him in Latin. He answers in Italian. I have been wrestling with him, day in and day out, for 14 years." In this rare interview Amorth said that in 1986 he was asked to be assistant to the only exorcist in Rome at the time, the Rev. Candido Poletti. Amorth says he quickly "realized how much work there was to be done and how few exorcists there were to do it" while in training under Poletti. Since then he claims to have performed more than 50,000 exorcisms.
According to Amorth, there are three types of exorcisms: one in which an object (such as your house or car) is exorcised, another performed at every baptism in which the devil formally is renounced, and finally the type in which demons are cast from the body of a victim. Although Amorth takes care to determine whether a victim truly is possessed or simply suffering from a mental condition, he says, "An unnecessary exorcism never hurt anybody."
During the ceremony, Amorth confronts the demons, asks how many have taken over the body and demands their names. There follow a series of prayers and traditional acts, such as touching the demoniac (the person who is possessed) with his stole or sprinkling holy water. After what can turn into hours or even years of regular prayers for exorcism, the demons finally are cast out and the victim freed from satanic seizure.
However, an official Catholic exorcism is very hard to obtain. It must be performed by a priest who has received the rite of exorcism and been given permission from the bishop, church authorities say. And no exorcist gets to this point without careful psychological evaluation.
However, a non-Catholic exorcism is very easy to get, according to Michael Cuneo, author of "American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty" and the forthcoming "Almost Midnight: An American Story of Murder and Redemption." Cuneo spent two years studying and attending exorcisms and says that in doing so he discovered a secret side of American life in which exorcisms are sought in huge numbers. He says official Catholic exorcisms are only a "microscopic" part of the many exorcisms performed in the United States. Even so, a Catholic "bootleg" or "underground exorcism" is easier to come by, Cuneo says. These are "performed by maverick Catholic priests" who believe there is a massive demonization problem about which the Catholic Church is not doing enough.
......continued in next post
Source -
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=21888
Terrance Cottrell Jr. was winding down his summer in Milwaukee, getting ready for a new school year at a new school. The boy did not live the untroubled life of other 8-year-old children, suffering as he did from autism
, and his mother would be sending him to a school better able to deal with his condition. Then one Sunday morning in August he was made the focus of a religious ceremony of a kind that still mystifies most of the public.
The Cottrell family minister, Ray Hemphill, performed an exorcism to cast out demons and thereby heal Terrance of his condition. The faithful gathered around the boy in their storefront Apostolic church and held him on the ground even as he struggled against them. Because of his diminished capacity to communicate, a result of autism, Terrance was unable to tell the pastor he could not breathe. After two hours of prayers for exorcism, someone finally noticed the boy wasn't breathing. Hemphill was arrested, and once more the public interest was alive with debate and fascination about exorcism.
Who, after all, is performing these ceremonies? Have we not learned from modern psychiatry
that mental illness is not caused by demonic possession? Or was C.S. Lewis correct in saying, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was in convincing the world he didn't exist"?
Most of what the popular culture knows about exorcism and demonic possession is gleaned from "The Exorcist," a film classic that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Since its release, this imaginative horror picture, based on the novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, has whetted an appetite and widespread interest in exorcism that in turn has produced other films, books and broadcasts that have tended to encourage the practice.
Biblical literalists point to exorcisms performed by Jesus, citing Luke 8:26-40 and Mark 1:23-36. These accounts, as well as Ephesians 6:10-18, which are seen as a charter for spiritual warfare, gave rise to the practice of exorcism among early Christians.
As a functionary of the Christian Church, the role of exorcist as an official office is mentioned in a letter by Pope Cornelius in 253, reports John L. Allen Jr. in the National Catholic Reporter. The practice continued within the church but became less popular following the Enlightenment, which brought with it Western rationalism and a bias toward science. The minor order of exorcism nonetheless remained a part of the regular training of priests for ordination.
This wasn't changed until 1972, when Pope Paul VI removed the order of exorcism from the training of every priest and left it to the bishop of each diocese to appoint an exorcist. The rite and rule of exorcism stayed the same until 1998, when the Vatican released a revision. The new rule acknowledges that many of the conditions that once were thought to result from demonic possession now are recognized as mental disorders. On the other hand the Vatican stated quite clearly that the devil is at work in the world and Christians must beware.
Few express concern that the devil is sending his minions out to seize and possess souls better than the Vatican's appointed exorcist, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth. At age 75 he has been a priest for 50 years and tells the London Sunday Telegraph's Gyles Brandreth, "I speak with the devil every day. I talk to him in Latin. He answers in Italian. I have been wrestling with him, day in and day out, for 14 years." In this rare interview Amorth said that in 1986 he was asked to be assistant to the only exorcist in Rome at the time, the Rev. Candido Poletti. Amorth says he quickly "realized how much work there was to be done and how few exorcists there were to do it" while in training under Poletti. Since then he claims to have performed more than 50,000 exorcisms.
According to Amorth, there are three types of exorcisms: one in which an object (such as your house or car) is exorcised, another performed at every baptism in which the devil formally is renounced, and finally the type in which demons are cast from the body of a victim. Although Amorth takes care to determine whether a victim truly is possessed or simply suffering from a mental condition, he says, "An unnecessary exorcism never hurt anybody."
During the ceremony, Amorth confronts the demons, asks how many have taken over the body and demands their names. There follow a series of prayers and traditional acts, such as touching the demoniac (the person who is possessed) with his stole or sprinkling holy water. After what can turn into hours or even years of regular prayers for exorcism, the demons finally are cast out and the victim freed from satanic seizure.
However, an official Catholic exorcism is very hard to obtain. It must be performed by a priest who has received the rite of exorcism and been given permission from the bishop, church authorities say. And no exorcist gets to this point without careful psychological evaluation.
However, a non-Catholic exorcism is very easy to get, according to Michael Cuneo, author of "American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty" and the forthcoming "Almost Midnight: An American Story of Murder and Redemption." Cuneo spent two years studying and attending exorcisms and says that in doing so he discovered a secret side of American life in which exorcisms are sought in huge numbers. He says official Catholic exorcisms are only a "microscopic" part of the many exorcisms performed in the United States. Even so, a Catholic "bootleg" or "underground exorcism" is easier to come by, Cuneo says. These are "performed by maverick Catholic priests" who believe there is a massive demonization problem about which the Catholic Church is not doing enough.
......continued in next post