Exorcisms Exorcisms are steeped in history. There are those who equate them more with magic than a religious service. First of all, for anyone to believe they are real, they must believe in religion itself and the existence of God and the devil. I say this because if you didn’t believe in God and the devil, you would think an exorcism is maybe a silly event which serves no purpose. You might also think those who are said to need them are really just mentally ill individuals. The problem with this thinking is some of the people to be exorcised exhibit abilities which no human can do. These abilities include levitation, talking in strange languages the person never knew before, turning their head completely around, demonic voices and other things. As many of us know there are certain individuals in churches and elsewhere who are the exorcists who are in charge of casting out these spirits. One of them is a priest we can call Jason. He is a vicar of a church in Britain, but more importantly he has a second title which is a deliverance minister. This means he not only performs exorcisms, but he is on call for people who had things happen in their homes which they believe are paranormal. This might include poltergeist activity where things seem to be moving around on their own or for many other reasons or just because they feel they are having very abnormal bad luck. His job entails not only his paranormal duties, but starts with interviews where he decides what may really be going on. He has been doing this a long time, and in that time, I am sure he has met with some people with vivid imaginations and others who had a mental illness. He puts the last option in a very nice way. He says he decides whether the problem is external or internal. He will bless the house in any case. If you don’t belong to the church, he will try and help you anyway. The dictionary defines exorcisms as the expulsion or attempted expulsion of a supposed evil spirit from a person or place. One Catholic priest in Ohio said he never wanted to become an exorcist, but since he has become one, some of the things he has seen are just as bad as what is shown in some movies. That is a chilling thought. He said while he was being trained in Rome, he saw a person who was the subject of an exorcism levitate. When he was being trained in Rome, he watched 40 exorcisms. He said this gave him a pretty good idea of what he was up against. While performing one exorcise to get the evil spirit out of a woman, she lunged at him and a demonic voice said who is he, he has no power over us. The priest then placed his hands on her head and started to pray, but just then a demonic voice said you can’t get rid of us, you are not strong enough. During one exorcism which was being conducted in the church, he was saying a prayer for a woman and just then, the chair she was sitting on flew back and hit the altar. How many people contact this priest in a year? He says he gets over 1,800 calls and emails every year which people ask for his help. When he became an exorcist who was trained in Rome, he was among only 12 others in the United States. The father says he must exhaust every other possibility before he determines a person is possessed and an exorcism has to be the last option. There are rules in the Catholic church about the requirements needed to be met before an exorcism can take place and the first one is the person asking for the exorcism must have a psychological examination. The church also wants to know about drug addictions, and occult experience. It is also required to know if the person has ever engaged in the occult, tried to communicate with spirits, demons or the devil. One question which is also asked is does the person truly want to be free of evil influences. Lastly will that person do what must be done to accomplish this. A priest in Oregon has said the exorcisms he performs are getting darker. While he is not a Roman Catholic priest, the exorcisms are similar. He is also a mental health counselor and also specializes in substance abuse treatments. He said he wouldn’t believe in what happens in an exorcism, if he had not seen half of this firsthand. A man claimed he had demons and could constantly hear them fighting and yelling. The priest performed an exorcism on him and after about a half hour a loud crack was heard and the demons were said to leave the man. The priest said getting them out was only the first step to keeping them away. People have to get more spiritual and embrace religion and God, or they could come back. The movie The Exorcist was based on a real exorcism. We don’t know the actual name of the person because they were known only by the alias Roland Doe and Robbie Mannheim. A young 13 year old boy wanted to contact the spirit of his deceased aunt. He used a Ouija board to attempt this. After that the family claimed weird things began to happen all over the house. Furniture was moving by itself; strange noises were happening and when Roland was around objects would levitate. A Lutheran pastor examined the boy and referred him to a Catholic priest. The priest began the exorcism but it was interrupted when the boy slashed the priest’s arm with a bed spring. The family moved to St. Louis and again sought help for the boy. Priests performed 30 exorcisms on the boy in a psychiatric hospital. Messages appeared on his skin. He exhibited super human strength, and spoke in guttural voices. Eventually he was successfully relieved of the evil spirits.
|
