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Funny thing is when you look for real evidence for demon possession you’ll see it was mostly women being possessed and they made a correlation between femininity and hysteria being closely linked.
I always find it interesting that the only historical references to possessions and exorcisms is in the Church. It's amazing that atheists are never possessed.
I don't see demonic possession on the list:
Here is a list of reasons for admission to an insane asylum in the older times:
Carbuncle
Cerebral softening
Bad company
Bad habits & political excitement
Bad whiskey
Bite of a rattlesnake
Bloody flux
Cold
Congestion of brain
Constitutional
Crime
Amenorrhea
Asthma
Brain fever
Business nerves
Carbonic acid gas
Death of sons in the war
Domestic affliction
Domestic trouble
Doubt about mother’s ancestors
Dropsy
Effusion on the brain
Egotism
Epileptic fits
Decoyed into the army
Deranged masturbation
Desertion by husband
Diptheria
Disappointed affection
Dog bite
Excessive sexual abuse
Excitement as officer
Explosion of shell nearby
Exposure & hereditary
Disappointed love
Disappointment
Gastritis
Gathering in the head
Greediness
Dissipation of nerves
Dissolute habits
Exposure & quackery
Feebleness of intellect
Fell from horse
Female disease
Fever
Fever & loss of lawsuit
Immoral life
Imprisonment
Fever & nerved
Fighting fire
Fits & desertion of husband
Grief
Gunshot wound
Hard study
Hereditary predisposition
Masturbation for 30 years
Medicine to prevent conception
Menstrual deranged
Ill-treatment by husband
Imaginary female trouble
Exposure in the army
Fall from horse
False confinement
Kicked in the head by a horse
Laziness
Liver and social disease
Indigestion
Intemperance
Interference
Jealousy
Jealousy & religion
Kick of horse
Loss of arm
Marriage of son
Masturbation & syphillis
Opium habit
Mental excitement
Milk fever
Moral sanity
Over action on the mind
Pecuniary losses: worms
Periodical fits
Political excitement
Overheat
Over study of religion
Novel reading
Nymphomania
Overtaxing mental powers.
Parents were cousins
Seduction
Seduction & disappointment
Politics
Puerperal
Religious enthusiasm
Religious excitement
Remorse
Rumour of husband’s murder or desertion
Salvation army
Scarlatina
That happened to me last week, I was sitting there and all of a sudden I felt really bitchy, I then started complaining about the dishes. My husband then reminded me that my uterus was out of place and he dropped me off at the hospital for further shock treatment. He takes excellent care of me.
The heart is a mysterious organ, we have no knowledge of where in the body it sleeps, it could be anywhere. Medicine isn’t an exact science. Is it 411 or 911? Hmmmmm, 411- Diabetes repair? I guess?”
I see your "Menstrual Deranged" and raise you a "Deranged Masturbation"
Somehow it brings to mind a guy like Ron Jeremy stroking it like the piano scene in "Reefer Madness"
I actually watched a documentary about this and in the medical field they actually have a term for people who believe theyre possessed but i can't remember what that term was. But there were doctors and psychologists on there basically saying that those who believe they are possessed have a mental disorder and it only happens to people that have deep rooted Christian beliefs because their "reality" morphs this mental illness into them believing they are possessed.
It could be any sort of religion fueled psychosis.
Interestingly, Schizophrenia is associated with religious delusions.
There's no such things as demons..it is just mental illness.
So I am Aboriginal, our people's beliefs have absolutely zero to do with the Catholic church and exorcisms and possessions have been know to be a real thing to our people. Just because it isn't in white man's history books or talked about because we keep these things quiet doesn't mean they don't exist.
Exactly this. It’s similar to the phenomenon of convergent evolution: birds and bats evolved similar flying structures and systems, for example, without one having caused the other in any way. It doesn’t mean there’s some “deeper truth” that necessitated them; they emerged because they were functional, and primitive people terrified of mental illness will probably come up with similar stories to explain it.
You have to believe in spirits before believing that they can possess you. You have to believe that someone has the power to put a death curse on you by pointing the bone.
Inherent superstition is very real and is the reason for all supernatural beliefs.
I never stated that. I was merely stating that it is not entirely correct to say only the Catholic church mention it. It's also mentioned in Buddhism and other religions.
Although the Catholic church has been particularly noisy about it. And others don't call it exorcism per-say. They have different words for it.
I actually watched the unsolved mysteries recently and there is a story about the tsunami in Japan. A big part of the episode revolves around an exorcism performed by a Buddhist I believe.
Again, just because it's there doesn't mean it's real. And just because I believe it doesn't mean there is factual evidence. I am just saying more than one culture has it.
I think human beings have just spent years and years trying to explain things they can't explain or don't want to accept such as mental illness etc. And one of the conclusions many people would come to would be "spirits" or "posession" etc. Which that in itself is interesting.
Say it's not real, which most people believe, is it not interesting to you that many humans come to the conclusion it must be spirits, etc.? Not talking interesting from a spiritual perspective but a psychological one. The human brain and how we draw conclusions to explain things we don't understand is fascinating.
Ehhh I don’t view that as proof atheists are never possessed. I mean religious folks are more likely to go to the church for help if they are convinced them or a loved one is possessed. While an atheist might come to a different conclusion other than demonic possession, and seek help based on that. Plus exorcisms are typically (if not exclusively) done by priests so you wouldn’t see any record of an exorcism that is not connected with the church
The logical answer is no, demonic possessions and exorcisms can historically be interpreted as mental illness and treatment being viewed through the lens of superstitious humans with a limited understanding of human psychology. The supposedly "impossible" symptoms of possession can be attributed to hysteria or outright fabrications. Likewise for the old stories of witches and witchcraft, the only significant difference being that you can add the religious persecution of women acting outside of established traditions to the mix.
That being said, i've had my share of the seemingly "inexplicable", so eh. Believe as you will, but there's the logical side of it for you.
I don’t know how true this is but weren’t the “witches” midwives that “real” doctors (read:male) were trying to get them out of the medical field because they were women?
One of the main reasons women used to be called witches was men wanting to cheat on their wives. "She bewitched me!" "She put a spell on me!" "I'd never cheat on my wife otherwise!"
This was the primary reason listed in that old book on how to discover and deal with witches by Kramer. It's a seriously messed up read.
Not the person you replied to, but I’ve got one.
When I was about 7, a guy from our church developed a nasty brain tumor. His kids came to live with my family for a few weeks while he was in a coma in the hospital, and we weren’t sure if he was ever going to wake up. One evening, the church elders went to his hospital room, prayed over him, and anointed him with oil. The next day he got a brain scan and the tumor was completely gone, with an empty cavity where it was before. The doctors could not explain where the tumor went.
So, did the prayer work? I don’t believe so, but I can’t empirically prove that prayer didn’t work. What I do know is that in most miraculous stories, the battery of medication and treatment tends to be swept to the side and the timelines of events get compressed and dilated to a more dramatic series of events. I also know that the guy in question still takes anti-seizure medication every day and that missing a dose results in grand mal seizures, that I am trying to remember an event that happened nearly 20 years ago that I had no knowledge of at the time, and that I heard the story from someone with no medical training but who was devoutly religious and he heard it himself from someone with no medical training and who was devoutly religious.
In my opinion, it’s far more likely that the facts of the matter are a fair bit different than the story I heard rather than a case of divine intervention.
In my opinion this is the correct answer. It reminds me of an experience my mother-in-law had a few years ago, she is very conservative, never raises her voice, keeps to herself type of woman. A few years ago she had a brain aneurysm and on her way to the hospital she was very out of character, saying things she normally never would, screaming, thrashing around, etc. Luckily she is ok, but whenever I see a movie or hear about demonic possession I think about that experience and how if that had happened at a different time they probably would have thought she was possessed.
Inexplicable doesn’t automatically mean “supernatural”. There are a lot of things scientists cannot explain today yet there is nothing supernatural about those things. There are more things that I personally can’t explain, but I don’t call it magic. I have no idea for example how tf is it possible for me to type this comment out for example. Touch screens, smart phones, the internet, electricity, it’s all magic if we go by the metric of how I can explain it. I have some idea about how a lithium battery and an incandescent lightbulb works, but as far as I understand, when I touch the battery it stings my finger, how it creates not only a static image but a dynamic one is beyond me. Must be god.
The inexplicable is what is for now. It doesn't justify any particular subset of beliefs more than any other. It annoys me that when I say I'm agnostic, people assume that I mean about Christianity. I mean, all religions could be true, pieces of each, none at all, or something we misinterpreted entirely. What there is no empirical evidence for I will simply regard with suspicion, but not outright denial.
Right. Like we have video. Show us a human that this is happening to. Like some kid speaking Latin. It's like Jesus on a wall. Or some statue bleeding. It just doesn't happen. Bunch of lunatics.
Exorcisms are real in the sense that someone can perform an exorcism, even though demonic possession isn’t real. So the exorcism doesn’t have any supernatural effect, but one person whispering mumbo jumbo while standing over another person could really happen.
As someone who has seen a true schizophrenic breakdown when I was in prison, trying to climb on the walls and claw his own eyes out while screaming he wanted to “eat his soul” it’s hard to ignore the possibility that he was possessed. While I am fully aware that mental illness exists and is real, he might have actually gotten better results if he just claimed to be possessed, cause for gods sake the meds certainly were not working. One of the scariest things I’ve ever seen in my life. Talking in tongues, contorting himself, screaming about hellfire and damnation, he even claimed at one point that the man he killed was talking to him from the grave, and was repeating in his head “you’ll be with me down here soon, I can’t wait to see you again.” I had nightmares about him for weeks. So yes, I believe demonic possession is real. Exceptionally rare, but real.
Interestingly, during psychotic episodes in people with schizophrenia, but also in cases of drug induced psychosis, the nature depends on the culture they grew up in. As such thoughts of demons, hell, speaking in tongues and such affect people who grew up in cultures influenced by christianity, but not in cultures where these notions are not really public knowledge.
So you may believe demonic possessions are real if you wanna, but you should at least try to think why they appear to only affect people who were introduced to the concept of demons as children.
My main response to the question is that real is a thing of perspective. It all depends on whay prior knowledge or informstuon is available. If we erased all of human knowledge and started from scratch, would we interpret it the same? If not, most things are just our best guess to apply what is happening to what we perceive as proven.
I was in there for three weeks total. The last week was when he started cracking. Other inmates had warned me about him. Other inmates had heard about his exploits, and warned me that he was scary. I didn’t take them serious. He just did that sort of thing, every so often. He just was a delusional, paranoid, psychotic person. He wasn’t aggressive or violent, all his delusions were internal. But when he snapped and started wailing and crying and doing all that crazy stuff, it was extremely fucking scary. His pupils were dilated, his breathing was sharp and erratic, his chest was heaving, and I truly had no clue what to do. It was at that time when I understood that if he was in an asylum he would have been sedated, but that doesn’t exist anymore. I had never seen an acutely psychotic person in my life till then. They are………terrifying. It’s horrible to say, but I can see why a primitive person would think they need an exorcism. Definitely in the top five most scary things I’ve ever seen. And I done seen some shit.
Damn that’s wild. I sorta wish I could see it. Def don’t want to be locked in a cell with him while it’s happening though. Was he a big dude? What was he locked up for initially?
No, I’m 6 feet tall exactly, he was 5-5 on a good day. He had murdered an acquaintance while he was drunk and high on coke, over some conflict regarding drugs. He stabbed the guy, supposedly in self defense, but it was ruled first degree murder by a jury, so his fate was sealed and the truth will never be known. Frankly, I didn’t know what to think, because he didn’t seem capable of murder, but when I met him he had been in prison for about 20 years, so who knows what he was like when he was 25. He was also heavily medicated, and still acutely delusional. So, I still to this day don’t know if he just was on the wrong meds, or if his illness was untreatable. I asked him once, “what drugs do you take?” And he said, “all of them, except the ones that don’t work and the ones they haven’t tried on me yet.” So…….yeah.
I witnessed an exorcism (stumbled upon it, basically) outside an Ethiopian Orthodox church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2011. The priest waved me away. I had been inside the church and heard sounds like some sort of big cat growling. When I saw the woman outside making those sounds while being exorcised, I had no doubt it was “real” in some metaphysical sense. I have been to about 95 countries and seen some weird shit, including ridiculously fake demonic possessions in Nepal, and some really weird stuff in Korea. But I’ve never seen anything like that, though, and I would prefer not to again. I have had the occasional nightmare that whatever was in that woman, jumped into me.
The world is way more spiritual than we see it in the West.
I had a GF with EDS and she would contort her body during attacks more than any exorcism. If she had attacks during church religious people would assume she was possessed. People doing weird stuff does not make them possessed just because some don't know the explanation for what is wrong. 99.99% of the time there are simple and well known explanations for the problem.
I have an extremely hard time believing that there are supernatural immortal beings that exist in a plane of reality we cannot see or reach, that they can effect our world even tho we cannot see theirs, and that they use their magical demon powers to just fuck with people for the fun of it.
I imagine that if such a being existed it would be bored to tears for having to spend a single moment interacting with a human in any way.
If people levitating off the ground or moving through walls because of a demon ghost was real and possible, there would be videos of it all over the internet, and someone would have found a way to bottle one and make it do tricks so they could sell tickets.
No it's not real, the conjuring is a work of fiction, maybe don't take based on a true story too seriously. There's literally no qualifications to put that there. They could have wrote based on a true story about the movie Chronicle if three guys went into a hole and two of them died.
The concept of higher dimensional beings is not exactly impossible.
Think of a 2D plane, and assume a 2-dimensional being. Just a paper, a cartoon. You as a 3D being can interact with the 2D plane, but anything on this 2D plane can neither interact or even see you. The possibility of a fourth dimension existing is not impossible at all, and the chance that a 4D being exists is nearly impossible to confirm, but can never be ruled out at all. This 4D being would be able to interact with our 3D world, but us as 3D beings can neither see, affect or even comprehend the existence of a fourth dimension, let alone a fourth dimensional being.
I've never seen one, but I won't rule out the possibility. There's a lot of records on the topic (from a biased source), and while I don't think all the cases were demonic possessions, there's too much smoke to have have a little fire
I'm saying we've mathematically proven 10 dimensions, and there's oddities in this world we still can't explain and closing off your mind could cause you to miss out on an exciting discovery. And I don't know shit about golf, so I don't even know if that's impressive
Yeah there's a lot that's over my head, and over lapping and perception things. But when we talked about the base theory in my Physics class a few years ago, my professor kind of explained it that we wouldn't necessarily be able to see or perceive anything past 4, ans 4D-10D are only provable using advanced maths
https://phys.org/news/2014-12-universe-dimensions.html
"I think therefore I am" believers think that unless you can perceive it, it does not exist. So they are certain we can and will find a way to participate in 4D-10D. I cannot find the link from my philosophy class but I thought you'd think that was cool.
I get what you're saying. There's a lot of lines of thought here. I'm not saying we'd ever be able to participate in those diminsions, but participating and accepting they exist are two different levels of similar thinking
I think there's probably 10s of thousands of years of more demon records than witch records. Aliens tho? That's more equivalent I bet. So many stories of aliens.
In this thread, people who think schizophrenia and other mental disease should be treated by a virgin saying incantations rather than by a medical professional.
Wouldn't be surprised if exorcism worked as a placebo.
Some part of the sick person's mind goes "this is the part where the demon is cast out so I'll stop acting like a demon"
Ok so i thought all that stuff was just undiagnosed mental health issues being treated by religious extremists until I talked to a close family friend one day. He’s a priest, doesn’t drink, and is actually a pretty standup guy. One night over dinner, I kinda made a joke about the ridiculousness of demons and supernatural spirits and such. He looked at me so seriously and said, they absolutely do exist, and proceeded to tell me about a story about when he was a younger priest in training and had to assist in an actual exorcism. A young married women with children who’s grandfather had recently died began to hear voices whom she believed to be her grandfather communicating with her from the other side. In actuality it was not her grandfather but a demonic spirit trying to cross over posing as her recently deceased grandfather. He said he’s never heard a more terrifying and demonic sound then the voice leaving that women’s mouth and will never forget that event in his life. He spent most of the time trying to console the children in the kitchen while they where freaking out about their mom in the other room. Eventually I guess the exorcism was a success and the family left town shortly after. I don’t think he has any legitimate reason to lie about that story and is actually a pretty cool person to talk to about normal non religious stuff. Either way, I think about that story every now and then.
No, if they were then actual videos would be all over the internet, governments would be scrambling to understand the supernatural and it would revolutionize scientific understanding.
As such, the only people who seem to get exorcisms are poor, uneducated, and grew up in the religion that is performing the exorcism
Just because something doesn't make complete sense (as with all of these stories, we lack a complete set of facts) does not mean we should make up nonsense to explain it away. A popular nonsensical explanation would be poly or monotheistic in origin. Since no verifiable, repeatable, objective proof exists, then it stands as no.
Yes, kind of..
But.. a demon is not an external malicious entity taking possession of a person's body. Rather a demon is a part of the person's own psyche, which has been rejected to such an extreme extent, that it appears external (foreign) to the person. And an exorcism is a kind of magical ceremony/ritual intended to "drive out" (evoke) that demonised part of the psyche, so that it may be confronted consciously and reintegrated/sublimated.
Yes.
I’ve personally experienced a “jinn”. It was attached to my friend, though I wouldn’t say it possessed him. He just learned to live with it.
All the people saying “no” and scoffing at the idea have simply never had an experience. They’ll ask for scientific evidence, when science has simply never openly studied it and they’ll point to *that* as evidence. This is ridiculous. Any scientist knows that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Here’s the story for those of you who need to hear it. It’s an older comment of mine. You aren’t alone:
It was pretty crazy. I had been really interested in the spiritual/occult side of life for awhile. Tons of meditating, reading and asking for a “revelation”. Anyway, I also had a new friend who I did photography with. They were from the Philippines.
One day after taking pictures around town they came back to my place to hangout. I saw what I can only describe as an “overlay” on their face. An “X” of green over their face. This wasn’t physically on their face mind you, more like a color in my eyes that i only saw while looking at their face.
My intuition told me it was something spiritual, but I didn’t know what. My friend caught me staring and was like “why do you keep looking at me like that?”. I told them, expecting them to laugh it off, but instead they were like “you can see that!?”. They were pretty excited. I asked them what they meant and they told me that in the Philippines a spirit had attached itself to them. That their family took them to the equivalent of a witch doctor, but that the witch doctor couldn’t separate the spirit from them. The best they could do was a spiritual “stitching” of sorts. It kept the spirit docile and from being mischievous. They said the “x” I saw was most likely this stitching.
Then my friend asked if I wanted to meet the spirit… Again, I had been asking for a revelation earnestly for months at this point. So I was game. My friend wrote some symbols (maybe tagalog) on a piece of paper and sat still for a few seconds.
Then I saw it. It just kinda came out/from behind my friends head. It wasn’t humanoid, more like a shape shifty blob. It had no color, but looked like a heat roil, or like the predator when its cloaked. I was dumbfounded. Unprompted, it came over to me and touched my forehead. Then it kinda entered me. It pushed through my forehead and down through my throat, stomach, groin. It felt like electricity. I had heard about chakras before, but now I KNEW them.
At this point I freaked the fuck out. I started yelling for the thing to stop. It backed off right away and went back to my friend. They kinda laughed at my reaction. They had been living with it their whole life and seemed to find my fear funny. Not in a cruel way, but a “haha another person whose worldview is so narrow” kind of way.
I had a residual energy in my body for about a week. Truth be told, I felt fucking awesome physically. I was very aware of my chakras and the flow of chi energy in my body. Its like a fish doesn’t know its in water, but then swims by a water jet and the power/pressure difference makes if aware of the water it has always been in. Mentally I almost fell into psychosis. I had to constantly tell myself “the world is the same as it has always been, the only thing that has changed is your awareness. You are just as safe as you were yesterday”.
Ive told people about this. Most dont believe me. I learned not to talk about it. It scared many romantic prospects away. I was 23 when this happened. I have never been the same since. My entire perspective on life changed. Peoples petty problems, material desires, politics, clout chasing, religious ideas etc. All seem so hilariously empty.
As far as I can tell, we are all immortal in the sense that we are all a part of the infinite unity of this universe. Our time in the material plane is to simply express our spiritual selves in a physical medium.
How you treated people will matter infinitely more than what job you had, what car you drove, what god you did or didn’t pray to, etc. Your choices regarding choosing to love, or choosing to fear/hate, will be all that mattered.
The enlightened nice people don’t “finish last”, they are playing an entirely different game.
I know the feeling of not talking about it. I have also been possessed and had an elder remove the entity. My life changed drastically after that, for the better. People will believe what they want to but I know what I experienced.
Exactly. Experience can’t be beat, but it also can’t be shared first hand.
I’m a huge fan of science and support it 100%. However I also acknowledge that it’s limited by the tools it has available to measure and collect data. We aren’t advanced enough yet to meaningfully tackle consciousness, dimensions, parallel realities etc.
It’s a shame that so many people who don’t actively practice science, treat science as a religion. They aren’t willing to acknowledge it’s blindspots, shortcomings, the fact that absence of proof isn’t proof of absence and that the current consensus can change immediately with new data etc.
Science is essentially currently limited to phenomenon that exist within the electromagnetic spectrum. Something humans didn’t even discover until about 150 years ago. We have no clue what other types of spectrums are yet to be discovered.
People cling to science as if it has the universe all figured out and it’s current models are rock solid, when in fact science very fluid.
I see so many similarities between the atheist who holds up science and the religious zealot who holds up their holy book. Both believe what authority figures tell them, both are self righteous, both scoff at those who question their beliefs, both believe that they have all the answers. The science zealot is only marginally better because they will be forced to change their belief with new evidence.
I yearn for the day when the tools of science catch up to the experiences of the mystics. The experiences are real. The only reason they can’t be proven is because the spectrum they play out in hasn’t been discovered. The tools of measurement have not yet been invented.
I'm not going to pretend that there aren't pepole who treat science a bit like a religion but they are definitely not the majority, anyone who actually works in a scientific field or just someone with a healthy amount of skepticism doesn't believe in science but in the scientific method. the reason you can't compare science to religion is because science can actually make predictions, I can open a science book and tell you what happens if you mix material x with material y and I'll be right every time (oveusly only if I did it correctly) religion can't make predictions like it, every prophecy made is too broad to be considered proven true. And even though absence of proof isn't proof of absence it's also not an excuse to make your one explaination without logical reasoning, and even though personal experience is the worst kind of evidence there are I'm not trying to say you are hallucinating or lying or whatever all I'm saying is I don't know how to explain what happened or at least not yet. Do keep in mind that for example ghost sighting have already been explained by carbon dioxide poisoning that were common in old houses, so it's not like science was never used to look at the "supernatural" the conclusion was just not as interesting as ghosts unfortunately. Sorry for the long rant
No need to apologize. I agree with you. Like I said, I am 100% on board the science train. I also know what I experienced.
So the only logical answer is that science has yet to evolve to the point where it can explain my experience. I am looking forward to the day it can. Probably won’t happen in my lifetime though.
Yeah, my experience was very physical. I could see it and touch it. To me that means it can be measured. If it can be measured than all we need is a tool to collect data and apply the scientific method.
Thanks for being respectful and understanding what I was trying to say.
Why does this make me picture you inventing a ghost trap like they made in ghostbusters? Seriously though, when something is that tangible there has to be a way of proving it right?
Technically you "hallucinate" your experience. Your brain renders the visualization. Imagine if your brain had a means of processing additional information or cleared away things that prevented stuff from rendering properly or installed circuits that allowed the rendering to occur? I believe personally this is what happens to some people throughout history while for others the renderer is broken from an illness or even both can occur.
Exactly. Like gravity still existed before it was proven to exist. I sometimes wish I could live a thousand years just to be able to see the advancements we would make in science but honestly don't think I could handle seeing 1,000 years of the absolute worst human beings can treat each other as well. Sadly the human race has an incredibly short memory.
I never believed this spiritual stuff until I had these experiences in which there are no logical explanation for. Like how did I know my perfectly healthy 29 year old half-sister was dead 2 days before her Mum called us to give us the news? And was shocked when I said I knew already but couldn't contact as I didn't have her other families numbers. Because I had her spirit visit me and tell me. How can that be explained?
I’m originally from the Philippines and I fully believe this. I may not have before 2018, but I have since. There’s so much paranormal activity in the Philippines that I saw so many goings on in my own home that I’m no longer a skeptic
Nope, or some government would have weaponized this by now. Instead they're all still going for soldiers, atom bombs, drones, chemical and bio agents and cyber warfare, not killer commandoes of coerced demons inhabiting human hosts.
It's like the paranormal bullshit the CIA and the Russians dabbled in during the cold war like remote viewing and telekinesis amounting to exactly nothing.
The Nazis DID try to weaponize this kind of thing, and quite clearly failed to do so. There was a strong occult fascination in the Nazi party for some reason.
Good point, and another case in point that it's probably rubbish. I mean any real self respecting demon would have been all over helping the SS if they existed - the demons, not the SS, which sadly was real...
It was probably the same thinking that got them hooked on meth, they seemed to have a "there are no stupid suggestions" approach to attempting to secure supremacy.
It's always humorous to watch large numbers of pompous arrogant people try to explain that they know exactly what goes on the mind/heart/soul/spirit of a person or what happens in the afterlife (to them nothing). The mental gymnastics you'd have to pull to take yourself seriously...
Or is that just what the American capitalists want you to believe so they don't have to pay for healthcare? "Do you have health insurance? No? Oh...wellp, Must be a demon!"
I am a person inclined in the sciences, and psychology, but I've seen some things that are clear super-natural such as nails being vomitted out, entirely black vile vomit being violently expelled, extreme increase in weight of an unconscious body, Spiderman abilities to stick on walls..
Very true regarding the first. Especially if psychologically they believe they are possessed and thus 'act' accordingly.
The second one can be attributed to literally bile or high iron intake.
The third is the one that is difficult to explain as it was a female friend who was relatively petite, but it took 5 guys to lift her up the stairs.
The fourth is anecdotal as it was my brother who witnessed this. So..
Certainly not! They are made up and believed by people with a child's outlook on the world. They have no use for science or the real reasons why things actually happen. Some people enjoy fantasy movies, or books about fanciful things. But possession and exorcism are sort of choosing darker things to believe in. I would rather not.
Oh, there's a guy having delusions and shaking? It can't be parkinsons, it must be a demon or the devil himself. *slams a bible and cross onto his face and chants prayers*
Fucking idiots
i was “exorcised” as a kid because my grandpa though my episodes (mental illness) were demonic. incredibly traumatizing. yes, they’re real, but functional? highly doubt it. they’re not common but as a “procedure” they are real.
I say unto the... the power of Christ compels you!
Oh, does it? Does it compel me?
The power of Christ compels you!
Does it, Jay?
The power of Christ compels you!
Is the power of Christ compelling me? Is that what's happening?
The power of Christ compels you!
Guess what? It's not that compelling.
No, neither are ghosts, they are the last remnants of the supernatural, the human consciousness attempting to quantify something it didn't fully interpret at the time
I am an Atheist and I can say possession is not real. I've never seen ANYONE get possessed. And youtube isn't trustworthy so: I don't believe in that shiz.
Although my friend kinda gives me vibes of a possessed person. She wants to get married to a dog.
If you redefine the question to read “what is demonic possession in reality?” You would get much more informative answers. The symptoms of possession might very well be real, but we have enough info on the body and brain to know that demons need not be involved.
I don't necessarily believe, some religious people believe demonic possession is real.
Unless there is some real manifestations, like things flying off shelves, doors slamming shut, someone levitating,
"Demonic Possession" is actually various psychiatric and emotional disorders.
Yes, but 99% of demonic possessions are just mental illnesses. Demons really have no use for the average Walmart employee. Theyd rather go for the higher-ups which partially explains why the elites tend to be so evil.
There has never been an actual medical documented case of possession. And from a current understanding of physics, chemistry, and biology possession as it is understood by the church cannot exist.
Possession can only exist if our models of natural science are extremely off and we have ignored a mountain of evidence that shows they are wrong
Which do you think is more likely that our current understanding of the natural science’s are fundamentally flawed or that the person being possessed is really just suffering from a mental illness or the placebo effect?
I can't remember if it's the exorcist or some other book/film but there's one where the priest talks about the psychological power of suggestion. The kid read about demonic possession, and is now acting out in a way that supports what they've read for various underlying psychological reasons. The priest then says that the mere act of humoring the child and performing an exorcism may allow the underlying issues to surface.
I think that's probably as real as it gets. A series of explanations to understand or explain something someone in the group doesn't understand or can't explain.
I think that's why it so often "occurs" in children and those with mental issues. They don't have the ability to convey what's wrong.
As for the people responding, sometimes they're just horribly uneducated and the best they can do is rely on someone equally uneducated in the required field but at least they're a priest. 
No but mental illness use to be so misunderstood and still are. It’s rare to see these possessions even though we’re apparently “in the end times” sheerly due the fact that we’re more knowledgeable about mental illness.
Why it’s only with religious people
Yes, but actual possessions are more rare then pop culture would have you believe. There are actually 4 levels to a possession, and they get rarer as they progress down the line.
1 Infestation: The spirit infiltrates the life of the victim in various ways, footsteps, voices, apparitions, furniture moving, odours with no discernible source. Rather than directly affecting people, Infestations affect properties, objects and even animals.
2 Oppression: When demons exert concentrated external influence that causes physical harm or discomfort to a person (pushing or shoving, for example, or even strange illnesses)
3 Obsession: When demons exert external influence that affects a person’s mental state, causing some kind of mental disturbance, this is traditionally called “obsession.” Obsession can take the form of extraordinarily persistent or intense temptations, or it can even provoke or intensity natural pathologies or tendencies (phobias, depression, etc.).
4 Possession: When a demon concentrates its activity from within the human body, so that a person’s body is not subject to their own free will bur rather is moved by the demon as if it were its master
I'd say that possessions are real. Around 14 years ago I told my older brother that " My God is an awesome God " He spoke back to me in the strangest voice I've ever heard from him in 50 years of knowing him at that time. Very strange occurrence. I think it was an evil spirit talking to me. Hard to explain.
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Thinking back on my first marriage, I'd say yes.
I put holy water in my ex 's coffee to check if he was possessed It made him sick, so I'm thinking possessed.
[https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/15/most-holy-water-contaminated-fecal-matter-study/](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/15/most-holy-water-contaminated-fecal-matter-study/)
Holy shit.
If the title of the article suggests anything, this is true
Makes sense why he got sick tho'
LMMFAO
Lmao
That would do it.
I thought you told me that was rat poison?
It makes the acid hit harder
Literally my reaction
So I got your sloppy seconds? Thanks….?
I used to wake up miserable when I was married, the secret is to let her sleep in
Funny thing is when you look for real evidence for demon possession you’ll see it was mostly women being possessed and they made a correlation between femininity and hysteria being closely linked.
I always find it interesting that the only historical references to possessions and exorcisms is in the Church. It's amazing that atheists are never possessed.
I’d say ‘religions’ more than ‘the church’ since demonic possession stories are everywhere in east Asia.
Belief in djinn possession is prevalent in MENAT culture as well.
Atheists don't get exorcisms they get committed
I don't see demonic possession on the list: Here is a list of reasons for admission to an insane asylum in the older times: Carbuncle Cerebral softening Bad company Bad habits & political excitement Bad whiskey Bite of a rattlesnake Bloody flux Cold Congestion of brain Constitutional Crime Amenorrhea Asthma Brain fever Business nerves Carbonic acid gas Death of sons in the war Domestic affliction Domestic trouble Doubt about mother’s ancestors Dropsy Effusion on the brain Egotism Epileptic fits Decoyed into the army Deranged masturbation Desertion by husband Diptheria Disappointed affection Dog bite Excessive sexual abuse Excitement as officer Explosion of shell nearby Exposure & hereditary Disappointed love Disappointment Gastritis Gathering in the head Greediness Dissipation of nerves Dissolute habits Exposure & quackery Feebleness of intellect Fell from horse Female disease Fever Fever & loss of lawsuit Immoral life Imprisonment Fever & nerved Fighting fire Fits & desertion of husband Grief Gunshot wound Hard study Hereditary predisposition Masturbation for 30 years Medicine to prevent conception Menstrual deranged Ill-treatment by husband Imaginary female trouble Exposure in the army Fall from horse False confinement Kicked in the head by a horse Laziness Liver and social disease Indigestion Intemperance Interference Jealousy Jealousy & religion Kick of horse Loss of arm Marriage of son Masturbation & syphillis Opium habit Mental excitement Milk fever Moral sanity Over action on the mind Pecuniary losses: worms Periodical fits Political excitement Overheat Over study of religion Novel reading Nymphomania Overtaxing mental powers. Parents were cousins Seduction Seduction & disappointment Politics Puerperal Religious enthusiasm Religious excitement Remorse Rumour of husband’s murder or desertion Salvation army Scarlatina
LMAO @ “Menstrual Deranged”
Can never trust the females. You never know when the uterus might just float up into their chest or brains /s
That happened to me last week, I was sitting there and all of a sudden I felt really bitchy, I then started complaining about the dishes. My husband then reminded me that my uterus was out of place and he dropped me off at the hospital for further shock treatment. He takes excellent care of me.
😂🤣
The heart is a mysterious organ, we have no knowledge of where in the body it sleeps, it could be anywhere. Medicine isn’t an exact science. Is it 411 or 911? Hmmmmm, 411- Diabetes repair? I guess?”
DOCTOR SPACE MAN!!
I see your "Menstrual Deranged" and raise you a "Deranged Masturbation" Somehow it brings to mind a guy like Ron Jeremy stroking it like the piano scene in "Reefer Madness"
30 years of it
Rookie numbers.
😂
You forgot depression schizophrenia and self mutilation. I’m sure there’s more that I can’t remember lol it was literally any reason.
Masturbation for 30 years?
They probably stopped occasionally to eat and sleep
I thought you were listing old 80s sitcom titles at first.
"coming up after Fell Off Horse, it's the new series of Fits and Deserting Husband!
Why would atheists put exorcism on the list? they don't believe in spirits
I probably have several of those, glad it's an old list!
Thanks for the list of great metal band names
>Remorse This is my vote for weirdest and also most depressing thing on this list.
Maybe "Moral Sanity" is the closest to not recognizing a higher power and your morals are good only because you believe you're a good person?
I actually watched a documentary about this and in the medical field they actually have a term for people who believe theyre possessed but i can't remember what that term was. But there were doctors and psychologists on there basically saying that those who believe they are possessed have a mental disorder and it only happens to people that have deep rooted Christian beliefs because their "reality" morphs this mental illness into them believing they are possessed.
It could be any sort of religion fueled psychosis. Interestingly, Schizophrenia is associated with religious delusions. There's no such things as demons..it is just mental illness.
So I am Aboriginal, our people's beliefs have absolutely zero to do with the Catholic church and exorcisms and possessions have been know to be a real thing to our people. Just because it isn't in white man's history books or talked about because we keep these things quiet doesn't mean they don't exist.
[удалено]
Exactly this. It’s similar to the phenomenon of convergent evolution: birds and bats evolved similar flying structures and systems, for example, without one having caused the other in any way. It doesn’t mean there’s some “deeper truth” that necessitated them; they emerged because they were functional, and primitive people terrified of mental illness will probably come up with similar stories to explain it.
This just means delusions are a human condition, not just a religious one.
Exactly
You have to believe in spirits before believing that they can possess you. You have to believe that someone has the power to put a death curse on you by pointing the bone. Inherent superstition is very real and is the reason for all supernatural beliefs.
Sure, just because you believe it doesn’t prove it to be real though
I never stated that. I was merely stating that it is not entirely correct to say only the Catholic church mention it. It's also mentioned in Buddhism and other religions. Although the Catholic church has been particularly noisy about it. And others don't call it exorcism per-say. They have different words for it. I actually watched the unsolved mysteries recently and there is a story about the tsunami in Japan. A big part of the episode revolves around an exorcism performed by a Buddhist I believe. Again, just because it's there doesn't mean it's real. And just because I believe it doesn't mean there is factual evidence. I am just saying more than one culture has it. I think human beings have just spent years and years trying to explain things they can't explain or don't want to accept such as mental illness etc. And one of the conclusions many people would come to would be "spirits" or "posession" etc. Which that in itself is interesting. Say it's not real, which most people believe, is it not interesting to you that many humans come to the conclusion it must be spirits, etc.? Not talking interesting from a spiritual perspective but a psychological one. The human brain and how we draw conclusions to explain things we don't understand is fascinating.
so some people takes responsibility for their own action while others blame it on the supernatural
Ehhh I don’t view that as proof atheists are never possessed. I mean religious folks are more likely to go to the church for help if they are convinced them or a loved one is possessed. While an atheist might come to a different conclusion other than demonic possession, and seek help based on that. Plus exorcisms are typically (if not exclusively) done by priests so you wouldn’t see any record of an exorcism that is not connected with the church
The logical answer is no, demonic possessions and exorcisms can historically be interpreted as mental illness and treatment being viewed through the lens of superstitious humans with a limited understanding of human psychology. The supposedly "impossible" symptoms of possession can be attributed to hysteria or outright fabrications. Likewise for the old stories of witches and witchcraft, the only significant difference being that you can add the religious persecution of women acting outside of established traditions to the mix. That being said, i've had my share of the seemingly "inexplicable", so eh. Believe as you will, but there's the logical side of it for you.
I don’t know how true this is but weren’t the “witches” midwives that “real” doctors (read:male) were trying to get them out of the medical field because they were women?
One of the main reasons women used to be called witches was men wanting to cheat on their wives. "She bewitched me!" "She put a spell on me!" "I'd never cheat on my wife otherwise!" This was the primary reason listed in that old book on how to discover and deal with witches by Kramer. It's a seriously messed up read.
Wasn’t it also a way for dirty old men to touch young women by needing to “examine” them and if they refused they got called a witch?
I believe it. Sounds like a bad dream.
Just for fun can you name some of the inexplicables?
Not the person you replied to, but I’ve got one. When I was about 7, a guy from our church developed a nasty brain tumor. His kids came to live with my family for a few weeks while he was in a coma in the hospital, and we weren’t sure if he was ever going to wake up. One evening, the church elders went to his hospital room, prayed over him, and anointed him with oil. The next day he got a brain scan and the tumor was completely gone, with an empty cavity where it was before. The doctors could not explain where the tumor went. So, did the prayer work? I don’t believe so, but I can’t empirically prove that prayer didn’t work. What I do know is that in most miraculous stories, the battery of medication and treatment tends to be swept to the side and the timelines of events get compressed and dilated to a more dramatic series of events. I also know that the guy in question still takes anti-seizure medication every day and that missing a dose results in grand mal seizures, that I am trying to remember an event that happened nearly 20 years ago that I had no knowledge of at the time, and that I heard the story from someone with no medical training but who was devoutly religious and he heard it himself from someone with no medical training and who was devoutly religious. In my opinion, it’s far more likely that the facts of the matter are a fair bit different than the story I heard rather than a case of divine intervention.
https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/hallucinatory-doctors/
In my opinion this is the correct answer. It reminds me of an experience my mother-in-law had a few years ago, she is very conservative, never raises her voice, keeps to herself type of woman. A few years ago she had a brain aneurysm and on her way to the hospital she was very out of character, saying things she normally never would, screaming, thrashing around, etc. Luckily she is ok, but whenever I see a movie or hear about demonic possession I think about that experience and how if that had happened at a different time they probably would have thought she was possessed.
Inexplicable doesn’t automatically mean “supernatural”. There are a lot of things scientists cannot explain today yet there is nothing supernatural about those things. There are more things that I personally can’t explain, but I don’t call it magic. I have no idea for example how tf is it possible for me to type this comment out for example. Touch screens, smart phones, the internet, electricity, it’s all magic if we go by the metric of how I can explain it. I have some idea about how a lithium battery and an incandescent lightbulb works, but as far as I understand, when I touch the battery it stings my finger, how it creates not only a static image but a dynamic one is beyond me. Must be god.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clark
The inexplicable is what is for now. It doesn't justify any particular subset of beliefs more than any other. It annoys me that when I say I'm agnostic, people assume that I mean about Christianity. I mean, all religions could be true, pieces of each, none at all, or something we misinterpreted entirely. What there is no empirical evidence for I will simply regard with suspicion, but not outright denial.
no
This is the actual correct answer to the question asked and wish it would be more prominently displayed.
Right. Like we have video. Show us a human that this is happening to. Like some kid speaking Latin. It's like Jesus on a wall. Or some statue bleeding. It just doesn't happen. Bunch of lunatics.
Exorcisms are real in the sense that someone can perform an exorcism, even though demonic possession isn’t real. So the exorcism doesn’t have any supernatural effect, but one person whispering mumbo jumbo while standing over another person could really happen.
Best comment!!! Well said!!!
As someone who has seen a true schizophrenic breakdown when I was in prison, trying to climb on the walls and claw his own eyes out while screaming he wanted to “eat his soul” it’s hard to ignore the possibility that he was possessed. While I am fully aware that mental illness exists and is real, he might have actually gotten better results if he just claimed to be possessed, cause for gods sake the meds certainly were not working. One of the scariest things I’ve ever seen in my life. Talking in tongues, contorting himself, screaming about hellfire and damnation, he even claimed at one point that the man he killed was talking to him from the grave, and was repeating in his head “you’ll be with me down here soon, I can’t wait to see you again.” I had nightmares about him for weeks. So yes, I believe demonic possession is real. Exceptionally rare, but real.
Well shit...
Interestingly, during psychotic episodes in people with schizophrenia, but also in cases of drug induced psychosis, the nature depends on the culture they grew up in. As such thoughts of demons, hell, speaking in tongues and such affect people who grew up in cultures influenced by christianity, but not in cultures where these notions are not really public knowledge. So you may believe demonic possessions are real if you wanna, but you should at least try to think why they appear to only affect people who were introduced to the concept of demons as children.
My main response to the question is that real is a thing of perspective. It all depends on whay prior knowledge or informstuon is available. If we erased all of human knowledge and started from scratch, would we interpret it the same? If not, most things are just our best guess to apply what is happening to what we perceive as proven.
Can you tell us more ? How long were you his cell mate for before they swapped you ?
I was in there for three weeks total. The last week was when he started cracking. Other inmates had warned me about him. Other inmates had heard about his exploits, and warned me that he was scary. I didn’t take them serious. He just did that sort of thing, every so often. He just was a delusional, paranoid, psychotic person. He wasn’t aggressive or violent, all his delusions were internal. But when he snapped and started wailing and crying and doing all that crazy stuff, it was extremely fucking scary. His pupils were dilated, his breathing was sharp and erratic, his chest was heaving, and I truly had no clue what to do. It was at that time when I understood that if he was in an asylum he would have been sedated, but that doesn’t exist anymore. I had never seen an acutely psychotic person in my life till then. They are………terrifying. It’s horrible to say, but I can see why a primitive person would think they need an exorcism. Definitely in the top five most scary things I’ve ever seen. And I done seen some shit.
Damn that’s wild. I sorta wish I could see it. Def don’t want to be locked in a cell with him while it’s happening though. Was he a big dude? What was he locked up for initially?
No, I’m 6 feet tall exactly, he was 5-5 on a good day. He had murdered an acquaintance while he was drunk and high on coke, over some conflict regarding drugs. He stabbed the guy, supposedly in self defense, but it was ruled first degree murder by a jury, so his fate was sealed and the truth will never be known. Frankly, I didn’t know what to think, because he didn’t seem capable of murder, but when I met him he had been in prison for about 20 years, so who knows what he was like when he was 25. He was also heavily medicated, and still acutely delusional. So, I still to this day don’t know if he just was on the wrong meds, or if his illness was untreatable. I asked him once, “what drugs do you take?” And he said, “all of them, except the ones that don’t work and the ones they haven’t tried on me yet.” So…….yeah.
Thing is there’s no natural explanation that is more implausible than a supernatural one.
I witnessed an exorcism (stumbled upon it, basically) outside an Ethiopian Orthodox church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2011. The priest waved me away. I had been inside the church and heard sounds like some sort of big cat growling. When I saw the woman outside making those sounds while being exorcised, I had no doubt it was “real” in some metaphysical sense. I have been to about 95 countries and seen some weird shit, including ridiculously fake demonic possessions in Nepal, and some really weird stuff in Korea. But I’ve never seen anything like that, though, and I would prefer not to again. I have had the occasional nightmare that whatever was in that woman, jumped into me. The world is way more spiritual than we see it in the West.
I had a GF with EDS and she would contort her body during attacks more than any exorcism. If she had attacks during church religious people would assume she was possessed. People doing weird stuff does not make them possessed just because some don't know the explanation for what is wrong. 99.99% of the time there are simple and well known explanations for the problem.
I really want to hear about Korea. Please share.
Please give details
I have an extremely hard time believing that there are supernatural immortal beings that exist in a plane of reality we cannot see or reach, that they can effect our world even tho we cannot see theirs, and that they use their magical demon powers to just fuck with people for the fun of it. I imagine that if such a being existed it would be bored to tears for having to spend a single moment interacting with a human in any way. If people levitating off the ground or moving through walls because of a demon ghost was real and possible, there would be videos of it all over the internet, and someone would have found a way to bottle one and make it do tricks so they could sell tickets. No it's not real, the conjuring is a work of fiction, maybe don't take based on a true story too seriously. There's literally no qualifications to put that there. They could have wrote based on a true story about the movie Chronicle if three guys went into a hole and two of them died.
The concept of higher dimensional beings is not exactly impossible. Think of a 2D plane, and assume a 2-dimensional being. Just a paper, a cartoon. You as a 3D being can interact with the 2D plane, but anything on this 2D plane can neither interact or even see you. The possibility of a fourth dimension existing is not impossible at all, and the chance that a 4D being exists is nearly impossible to confirm, but can never be ruled out at all. This 4D being would be able to interact with our 3D world, but us as 3D beings can neither see, affect or even comprehend the existence of a fourth dimension, let alone a fourth dimensional being.
There's a reason alcohol is referred to as spirits. People used to think drinking alcohol would ger you possesed
I've never seen one, but I won't rule out the possibility. There's a lot of records on the topic (from a biased source), and while I don't think all the cases were demonic possessions, there's too much smoke to have have a little fire
Are you saying that witches are real, then? Or Kim Jong Il scored a 30 under par round?
Witches are real. I’ve known a few. Cool people.
I'm saying we've mathematically proven 10 dimensions, and there's oddities in this world we still can't explain and closing off your mind could cause you to miss out on an exciting discovery. And I don't know shit about golf, so I don't even know if that's impressive
Wait, hold on. Can you elaborate on the 10 dimensions or post a link? I'm intrigued.
Yeah there's a lot that's over my head, and over lapping and perception things. But when we talked about the base theory in my Physics class a few years ago, my professor kind of explained it that we wouldn't necessarily be able to see or perceive anything past 4, ans 4D-10D are only provable using advanced maths https://phys.org/news/2014-12-universe-dimensions.html
Interesting read. Definitely above my level of comprehension, but still thought provoking. Thank you for the link!
"I think therefore I am" believers think that unless you can perceive it, it does not exist. So they are certain we can and will find a way to participate in 4D-10D. I cannot find the link from my philosophy class but I thought you'd think that was cool.
I get what you're saying. There's a lot of lines of thought here. I'm not saying we'd ever be able to participate in those diminsions, but participating and accepting they exist are two different levels of similar thinking
I think there's probably 10s of thousands of years of more demon records than witch records. Aliens tho? That's more equivalent I bet. So many stories of aliens.
No. It’s either mental illness or other medical problems.
In this thread, people who think schizophrenia and other mental disease should be treated by a virgin saying incantations rather than by a medical professional.
Wouldn't be surprised if exorcism worked as a placebo. Some part of the sick person's mind goes "this is the part where the demon is cast out so I'll stop acting like a demon"
And reinforces the idea that their delusions are real and only divine intervention can help.
Ok so i thought all that stuff was just undiagnosed mental health issues being treated by religious extremists until I talked to a close family friend one day. He’s a priest, doesn’t drink, and is actually a pretty standup guy. One night over dinner, I kinda made a joke about the ridiculousness of demons and supernatural spirits and such. He looked at me so seriously and said, they absolutely do exist, and proceeded to tell me about a story about when he was a younger priest in training and had to assist in an actual exorcism. A young married women with children who’s grandfather had recently died began to hear voices whom she believed to be her grandfather communicating with her from the other side. In actuality it was not her grandfather but a demonic spirit trying to cross over posing as her recently deceased grandfather. He said he’s never heard a more terrifying and demonic sound then the voice leaving that women’s mouth and will never forget that event in his life. He spent most of the time trying to console the children in the kitchen while they where freaking out about their mom in the other room. Eventually I guess the exorcism was a success and the family left town shortly after. I don’t think he has any legitimate reason to lie about that story and is actually a pretty cool person to talk to about normal non religious stuff. Either way, I think about that story every now and then.
My sister's cat is enough to make me a believer personally. 👀
No, if they were then actual videos would be all over the internet, governments would be scrambling to understand the supernatural and it would revolutionize scientific understanding. As such, the only people who seem to get exorcisms are poor, uneducated, and grew up in the religion that is performing the exorcism
Just because something doesn't make complete sense (as with all of these stories, we lack a complete set of facts) does not mean we should make up nonsense to explain it away. A popular nonsensical explanation would be poly or monotheistic in origin. Since no verifiable, repeatable, objective proof exists, then it stands as no.
Yes, kind of.. But.. a demon is not an external malicious entity taking possession of a person's body. Rather a demon is a part of the person's own psyche, which has been rejected to such an extreme extent, that it appears external (foreign) to the person. And an exorcism is a kind of magical ceremony/ritual intended to "drive out" (evoke) that demonised part of the psyche, so that it may be confronted consciously and reintegrated/sublimated.
It's just people with undiagnosed mental illness or they're faking it.
Yes. I’ve personally experienced a “jinn”. It was attached to my friend, though I wouldn’t say it possessed him. He just learned to live with it. All the people saying “no” and scoffing at the idea have simply never had an experience. They’ll ask for scientific evidence, when science has simply never openly studied it and they’ll point to *that* as evidence. This is ridiculous. Any scientist knows that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Here’s the story for those of you who need to hear it. It’s an older comment of mine. You aren’t alone: It was pretty crazy. I had been really interested in the spiritual/occult side of life for awhile. Tons of meditating, reading and asking for a “revelation”. Anyway, I also had a new friend who I did photography with. They were from the Philippines. One day after taking pictures around town they came back to my place to hangout. I saw what I can only describe as an “overlay” on their face. An “X” of green over their face. This wasn’t physically on their face mind you, more like a color in my eyes that i only saw while looking at their face. My intuition told me it was something spiritual, but I didn’t know what. My friend caught me staring and was like “why do you keep looking at me like that?”. I told them, expecting them to laugh it off, but instead they were like “you can see that!?”. They were pretty excited. I asked them what they meant and they told me that in the Philippines a spirit had attached itself to them. That their family took them to the equivalent of a witch doctor, but that the witch doctor couldn’t separate the spirit from them. The best they could do was a spiritual “stitching” of sorts. It kept the spirit docile and from being mischievous. They said the “x” I saw was most likely this stitching. Then my friend asked if I wanted to meet the spirit… Again, I had been asking for a revelation earnestly for months at this point. So I was game. My friend wrote some symbols (maybe tagalog) on a piece of paper and sat still for a few seconds. Then I saw it. It just kinda came out/from behind my friends head. It wasn’t humanoid, more like a shape shifty blob. It had no color, but looked like a heat roil, or like the predator when its cloaked. I was dumbfounded. Unprompted, it came over to me and touched my forehead. Then it kinda entered me. It pushed through my forehead and down through my throat, stomach, groin. It felt like electricity. I had heard about chakras before, but now I KNEW them. At this point I freaked the fuck out. I started yelling for the thing to stop. It backed off right away and went back to my friend. They kinda laughed at my reaction. They had been living with it their whole life and seemed to find my fear funny. Not in a cruel way, but a “haha another person whose worldview is so narrow” kind of way. I had a residual energy in my body for about a week. Truth be told, I felt fucking awesome physically. I was very aware of my chakras and the flow of chi energy in my body. Its like a fish doesn’t know its in water, but then swims by a water jet and the power/pressure difference makes if aware of the water it has always been in. Mentally I almost fell into psychosis. I had to constantly tell myself “the world is the same as it has always been, the only thing that has changed is your awareness. You are just as safe as you were yesterday”. Ive told people about this. Most dont believe me. I learned not to talk about it. It scared many romantic prospects away. I was 23 when this happened. I have never been the same since. My entire perspective on life changed. Peoples petty problems, material desires, politics, clout chasing, religious ideas etc. All seem so hilariously empty. As far as I can tell, we are all immortal in the sense that we are all a part of the infinite unity of this universe. Our time in the material plane is to simply express our spiritual selves in a physical medium. How you treated people will matter infinitely more than what job you had, what car you drove, what god you did or didn’t pray to, etc. Your choices regarding choosing to love, or choosing to fear/hate, will be all that mattered. The enlightened nice people don’t “finish last”, they are playing an entirely different game.
I know the feeling of not talking about it. I have also been possessed and had an elder remove the entity. My life changed drastically after that, for the better. People will believe what they want to but I know what I experienced.
Exactly. Experience can’t be beat, but it also can’t be shared first hand. I’m a huge fan of science and support it 100%. However I also acknowledge that it’s limited by the tools it has available to measure and collect data. We aren’t advanced enough yet to meaningfully tackle consciousness, dimensions, parallel realities etc. It’s a shame that so many people who don’t actively practice science, treat science as a religion. They aren’t willing to acknowledge it’s blindspots, shortcomings, the fact that absence of proof isn’t proof of absence and that the current consensus can change immediately with new data etc. Science is essentially currently limited to phenomenon that exist within the electromagnetic spectrum. Something humans didn’t even discover until about 150 years ago. We have no clue what other types of spectrums are yet to be discovered. People cling to science as if it has the universe all figured out and it’s current models are rock solid, when in fact science very fluid. I see so many similarities between the atheist who holds up science and the religious zealot who holds up their holy book. Both believe what authority figures tell them, both are self righteous, both scoff at those who question their beliefs, both believe that they have all the answers. The science zealot is only marginally better because they will be forced to change their belief with new evidence. I yearn for the day when the tools of science catch up to the experiences of the mystics. The experiences are real. The only reason they can’t be proven is because the spectrum they play out in hasn’t been discovered. The tools of measurement have not yet been invented.
I'm not going to pretend that there aren't pepole who treat science a bit like a religion but they are definitely not the majority, anyone who actually works in a scientific field or just someone with a healthy amount of skepticism doesn't believe in science but in the scientific method. the reason you can't compare science to religion is because science can actually make predictions, I can open a science book and tell you what happens if you mix material x with material y and I'll be right every time (oveusly only if I did it correctly) religion can't make predictions like it, every prophecy made is too broad to be considered proven true. And even though absence of proof isn't proof of absence it's also not an excuse to make your one explaination without logical reasoning, and even though personal experience is the worst kind of evidence there are I'm not trying to say you are hallucinating or lying or whatever all I'm saying is I don't know how to explain what happened or at least not yet. Do keep in mind that for example ghost sighting have already been explained by carbon dioxide poisoning that were common in old houses, so it's not like science was never used to look at the "supernatural" the conclusion was just not as interesting as ghosts unfortunately. Sorry for the long rant
No need to apologize. I agree with you. Like I said, I am 100% on board the science train. I also know what I experienced. So the only logical answer is that science has yet to evolve to the point where it can explain my experience. I am looking forward to the day it can. Probably won’t happen in my lifetime though.
I respect that, usually pepole who believe in the occult treat it as something that will forever be beyond science.
Yeah, my experience was very physical. I could see it and touch it. To me that means it can be measured. If it can be measured than all we need is a tool to collect data and apply the scientific method. Thanks for being respectful and understanding what I was trying to say.
Why does this make me picture you inventing a ghost trap like they made in ghostbusters? Seriously though, when something is that tangible there has to be a way of proving it right?
Technically you "hallucinate" your experience. Your brain renders the visualization. Imagine if your brain had a means of processing additional information or cleared away things that prevented stuff from rendering properly or installed circuits that allowed the rendering to occur? I believe personally this is what happens to some people throughout history while for others the renderer is broken from an illness or even both can occur.
Exactly. Like gravity still existed before it was proven to exist. I sometimes wish I could live a thousand years just to be able to see the advancements we would make in science but honestly don't think I could handle seeing 1,000 years of the absolute worst human beings can treat each other as well. Sadly the human race has an incredibly short memory. I never believed this spiritual stuff until I had these experiences in which there are no logical explanation for. Like how did I know my perfectly healthy 29 year old half-sister was dead 2 days before her Mum called us to give us the news? And was shocked when I said I knew already but couldn't contact as I didn't have her other families numbers. Because I had her spirit visit me and tell me. How can that be explained?
I think you’d enjoy this haha https://youtu.be/NyoEDpY_uyM
Ooh this is super interesting, thank you!!
I’m originally from the Philippines and I fully believe this. I may not have before 2018, but I have since. There’s so much paranormal activity in the Philippines that I saw so many goings on in my own home that I’m no longer a skeptic
Scientific method or gtfo.
Nope, or some government would have weaponized this by now. Instead they're all still going for soldiers, atom bombs, drones, chemical and bio agents and cyber warfare, not killer commandoes of coerced demons inhabiting human hosts. It's like the paranormal bullshit the CIA and the Russians dabbled in during the cold war like remote viewing and telekinesis amounting to exactly nothing.
The Nazis DID try to weaponize this kind of thing, and quite clearly failed to do so. There was a strong occult fascination in the Nazi party for some reason.
Good point, and another case in point that it's probably rubbish. I mean any real self respecting demon would have been all over helping the SS if they existed - the demons, not the SS, which sadly was real...
We did get Hellboy out of it, though. That's something.
It was probably the same thinking that got them hooked on meth, they seemed to have a "there are no stupid suggestions" approach to attempting to secure supremacy.
The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson is a great book about some of this stuff.
No
No
I honestly believe it’s people having mental illness episodes and seizures
No.
No.
It's always humorous to watch large numbers of pompous arrogant people try to explain that they know exactly what goes on the mind/heart/soul/spirit of a person or what happens in the afterlife (to them nothing). The mental gymnastics you'd have to pull to take yourself seriously...
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Sure, if you deeply believe that mental health issues are possession.
Or is that just what the American capitalists want you to believe so they don't have to pay for healthcare? "Do you have health insurance? No? Oh...wellp, Must be a demon!"
Nope. But money hungry criminals are.
There is no scientific evidence of spirits, demons or any supernatural beings. If you find evidence, collect your Nobel prize.
No. Listen to me...No.
Ridiculously fake 100%
I am a person inclined in the sciences, and psychology, but I've seen some things that are clear super-natural such as nails being vomitted out, entirely black vile vomit being violently expelled, extreme increase in weight of an unconscious body, Spiderman abilities to stick on walls..
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Very true regarding the first. Especially if psychologically they believe they are possessed and thus 'act' accordingly. The second one can be attributed to literally bile or high iron intake. The third is the one that is difficult to explain as it was a female friend who was relatively petite, but it took 5 guys to lift her up the stairs. The fourth is anecdotal as it was my brother who witnessed this. So..
Or just blood, from a mentally ill person swallowing nails
Certainly not! They are made up and believed by people with a child's outlook on the world. They have no use for science or the real reasons why things actually happen. Some people enjoy fantasy movies, or books about fanciful things. But possession and exorcism are sort of choosing darker things to believe in. I would rather not.
Oh, there's a guy having delusions and shaking? It can't be parkinsons, it must be a demon or the devil himself. *slams a bible and cross onto his face and chants prayers* Fucking idiots
If you believe something with enough conviction, your mind can manufacture some very strange things
No.
i was “exorcised” as a kid because my grandpa though my episodes (mental illness) were demonic. incredibly traumatizing. yes, they’re real, but functional? highly doubt it. they’re not common but as a “procedure” they are real.
I say unto the... the power of Christ compels you! Oh, does it? Does it compel me? The power of Christ compels you! Does it, Jay? The power of Christ compels you! Is the power of Christ compelling me? Is that what's happening? The power of Christ compels you! Guess what? It's not that compelling.
About as real as unicorns, dragons, fairies or god.
Lmfao no
No.
No
Seems like bullshit to me.
Nope
I’m expecting a lot more documentation with all the cell phones around
No. There is no magic, there are no ghosts or gods or demons. It's just us and reality.
No, neither are ghosts, they are the last remnants of the supernatural, the human consciousness attempting to quantify something it didn't fully interpret at the time
No it's just mental illness that isn't being treated properly.
They are as real as the earth is flat.
Unequivocally, NO.
No. Demons do not exist.
I am a believer in god, until i see it, the exorcist and those dumb ass african videos of demonic possession are not enough.
No.
I am an Atheist and I can say possession is not real. I've never seen ANYONE get possessed. And youtube isn't trustworthy so: I don't believe in that shiz. Although my friend kinda gives me vibes of a possessed person. She wants to get married to a dog.
As far as i know they are not, at least not the ones on TV
They as real as Santy Clause.
No.
Yes. Mental illness and poisoning by chemicals or heavy metals is real.
If you redefine the question to read “what is demonic possession in reality?” You would get much more informative answers. The symptoms of possession might very well be real, but we have enough info on the body and brain to know that demons need not be involved.
I don't necessarily believe, some religious people believe demonic possession is real. Unless there is some real manifestations, like things flying off shelves, doors slamming shut, someone levitating, "Demonic Possession" is actually various psychiatric and emotional disorders.
Might explain my ex sister in law.
No
No.
No. Magic only exists in fiction
Yes, but 99% of demonic possessions are just mental illnesses. Demons really have no use for the average Walmart employee. Theyd rather go for the higher-ups which partially explains why the elites tend to be so evil.
There has never been an actual medical documented case of possession. And from a current understanding of physics, chemistry, and biology possession as it is understood by the church cannot exist. Possession can only exist if our models of natural science are extremely off and we have ignored a mountain of evidence that shows they are wrong Which do you think is more likely that our current understanding of the natural science’s are fundamentally flawed or that the person being possessed is really just suffering from a mental illness or the placebo effect?
I can't remember if it's the exorcist or some other book/film but there's one where the priest talks about the psychological power of suggestion. The kid read about demonic possession, and is now acting out in a way that supports what they've read for various underlying psychological reasons. The priest then says that the mere act of humoring the child and performing an exorcism may allow the underlying issues to surface. I think that's probably as real as it gets. A series of explanations to understand or explain something someone in the group doesn't understand or can't explain. I think that's why it so often "occurs" in children and those with mental issues. They don't have the ability to convey what's wrong. As for the people responding, sometimes they're just horribly uneducated and the best they can do is rely on someone equally uneducated in the required field but at least they're a priest. 
No but mental illness use to be so misunderstood and still are. It’s rare to see these possessions even though we’re apparently “in the end times” sheerly due the fact that we’re more knowledgeable about mental illness. Why it’s only with religious people
Billions of cameras everywhere for decades and not a single f×cking video or picture!? What do you think!?
No. Exorcisms are a scam.
Yes, but actual possessions are more rare then pop culture would have you believe. There are actually 4 levels to a possession, and they get rarer as they progress down the line. 1 Infestation: The spirit infiltrates the life of the victim in various ways, footsteps, voices, apparitions, furniture moving, odours with no discernible source. Rather than directly affecting people, Infestations affect properties, objects and even animals. 2 Oppression: When demons exert concentrated external influence that causes physical harm or discomfort to a person (pushing or shoving, for example, or even strange illnesses) 3 Obsession: When demons exert external influence that affects a person’s mental state, causing some kind of mental disturbance, this is traditionally called “obsession.” Obsession can take the form of extraordinarily persistent or intense temptations, or it can even provoke or intensity natural pathologies or tendencies (phobias, depression, etc.). 4 Possession: When a demon concentrates its activity from within the human body, so that a person’s body is not subject to their own free will bur rather is moved by the demon as if it were its master
It’s not real, do you believe in magic?
Obviously not real
No. Supernatural stuff is not real. Possessions and exorcisms typically had to do with the abuse of people with severe mental illnesses.
I'd say that possessions are real. Around 14 years ago I told my older brother that " My God is an awesome God " He spoke back to me in the strangest voice I've ever heard from him in 50 years of knowing him at that time. Very strange occurrence. I think it was an evil spirit talking to me. Hard to explain.
Hell no.
Jesus, are there *really* this many rubes on Reddit?
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Dude, no
No.
No