Exorcism: Is it Real?

Exorcism: Is it Real?

Dear Ali Sina,

I would like you to shed some of your marvelous knowledge on issue
regarding spirits, jinns or demon procession in your Alisina.org site.

After reading a lot regarding concept of God in your Alisina.org
section i came to view that you are right that we have to search our own
light.

It’s hard to deny and accept God, but at the same time this spirits
possession issue confuses me. If there is no life after death, how
comes there are jinns?

I want to know your idea on this matter. Let me know if you are in
doubt about after life or God then how you will face this problem of
spirit. Will you then believe there is life after death or God?

If you believe in spirits then for sure there is life after death and
God must be there because spirits are like souls. And many people who
do exorcisms take bible and Quran’s help and they succeed in curing the
patient. If that is true does it mean spirits believe in God and
religions, so that proves there is God and religion.

Please shed some light in this matter so we people who are now
thinking rationally can answer other people and save them
from superstitious beliefs.

Thank you…

Yasin

The answer to this question is going to be long. I apologize a
priori. I can’t shorten it but I will do my best to make it
entertaining.

I will break down my answer in four parts.

In Part I, I will discuss the logical absurdity of the belief in
demons and will explain why, if God exists, the belief in
demon-possession and exorcism is an insult to God and a blasphemy.

In Part II, I will show that exorcism is a sham and exorcists are con
artists and swindlers. I will expose one of the most renowned
charlatans in this field. You will then have no doubt that his man is
lying.

In Part III, I will answer the million dollar question. Why sane
people get sucked into this scam, behave like a loony and cooperate with
the exorcist to deceive others. The answer to this question is an eye
opener and unveils a fascinating and bizarre facet of our human
psychology.

In Part IV I will talk about the danger of exorcism. This is not a
harmless feel good exercise. It is a serious threat to the well-being
and mental health of the victims. This demonic practice (pardon the
pun) must be banned and the con artists practicing it must be exposed.



Part I

Is exorcism a godly practice?

At this point I am not going to discuss the existence or
non-existence of God. Let us assume that God exists. I would like to
argue that if God is real, exorcism is blasphemy. It is the biggest
insult to God, as it undermines His fairness and His sanity.

I am also not going to argue whether spirits are real or not. This
article is about demons and demon possession. My goal is to prove demons
don’t exist and demon possession and exorcism is a sham.

Religions tell us that God is the creator of everything and that
Satan and demons are also creations of God. As the story goes, God
created them good and they rebelled and became fallen angels.

Here is where things get problematic. According to religions Satan
and his cohort of demons are left free to deceive people and make them
go astray. We are also told that these demons are given the power to
snatch the bodies of people, enter them and use them as a vehicle to do
their mischief. At the same time we are assured that God is all-knowing,
all-wises, benevolent, just, compassionate and merciful. The problem
is that these two narratives don’t add up. They are mutually exclusive.

Let us say you have many children. You have also a venomous snake in a
cage. Will you let the reptile loose in the house? Will your
responsibility end by just telling your children to be careful? If you
do such thing you can’t claim to be a good parent. If someone reports
you or if one of your children is hurt, you will not only lose the
custody of your children, you will be also sent to jail for endangering
their lives. This would be a crime.

Those who believe in exorcism and think demons are given the power to
possess people, accuse God of this very crime. In fact God is even
guiltier than the criminally negligent parent in the above example. God
created Lucifer, knowing fully well that he will rebel. Why would he do
such thing?

Let us say I manufacture toys for living. My products are not fully
guaranteed. Under certain condition, say, when the temperature rises
above 40 degree centigrade, they explode causing death. Can I then claim
innocence when children are killed while playing with my products? Of
course not!

But that is not all. Let us say I receive an order from a hot country
where I know the temperature exceeds 40 degrees. I know that my toys
will explode and will cause the death of those handling them. In that
case I am no longer criminally negligent, but a criminal, period. This
is premeditated murder.

The proponents of exorcism who claim they love God accuse Him of this
very crime. Didn’t God know that Satan will become a fallen angel? Why
He created him? Why did He allow Satan roam on Earth and seduce humans?
This is not criminal negligence, it’s crime pure and simple. Does a God
like that deserve to be praised?

But wait! Things get even worse. God gave humans a brain and a
rational mind. But everything he does is irrational. He then says we
should ignore our reason and believe in things that appear as nonsense.
If really God is this crazy, He is not worthy of worship. Such a
cynical and malevolent god deserves our scorn.

What is the origin of human reason? Does it come from Satan or from
God? If from God, why should we be punished for using it and if it comes
from Satan, maybe Satan is the real God and this other fellow we call
God is the big deceiver. A god that builds a torture chamber and
barbeques humans for not just millions or billions or trillions of
years, but for eternity is a sick sadist being. He can’t possibly be the
real God.

But wait! We have not even scratched the surface. This so called
loving god is so evil that he allows demons to enter our body and use us
as they wish. Who gave them such power? Who else but God? Why would
He do such thing? According to my limited human reason this is very
evil. A loving wise God should know better. Well I have only human
reason. Can those endowed with divine reason lower themselves and
explain to us mortals God’s reason behind this apparent insanity? How
can the creator of the world, design us in such a fashion that demons
can easily enter our body and take control over us?

Before anyone say, we let it happen by something we did, let me
remind you that many victims of this so called demonic possession are
children.

I don’t buy this bovine stool. You see! I am afraid that God may
actually exist and that I may have to face him one day. How will I
answer Him if he asks me, “Ali, why did you attribute insanity to me?
Didn’t I give you a brain to distinguish right from wrong and truth from
falsehood? Wasn’t this brain the tool you used for your everyday life?
Why did you ignore it when it came to the most important thing which is
finding me? You shelved your reason, my biggest gift to you, and
blindly followed charlatans? That is what I fear. If God asks me these
questions, I wouldn’t know how to answer. I would melt in shame and
disappear in the cracks of the earth. That would be hell. The pain
caused by shame can be far more tormenting than that caused by fire.

The very notion that a loving and wise god would allow evil spirits
take control of humans, belies his wisdom and his sanity. It would make
Him an unjust and evil God. The belief in demon and/or spirit
possession is an insult to God. Those who believe in God must know that
attributing evil and insanity to Him is blasphemy.



Part II

Is Exorcism Real?

I hope by now you are convinced that the belief in Satan, demons and
demon possession is an insult to God’s sanity and omnipotence. Now let
us explore whether exorcism is real and whether ghosts exist.

I have not seen an exorcism in live but there are plenty of videos on
Youtube. Subjects behave as if they are demon possessed. Grownup people
act like crazy. They shout, swear, throw themselves to the ground, make
faces, curse, etc. If they are not possessed why would they do such
thing? In this part we will see whether what they do is genuine or they
are putting up an act. But first you need to watch this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uvU4f07sHE


Bob Larson is a renowned exorcist. He travels all over world
performing exorcism and videotaping them. He has made a name for
himself and is respected by those who believe in this craft. The woman
in the above video, Veronica, is not a paid actress. She believes that
she is demon possessed and has come for help.

Larson asks Veronica about her children and after finding out that
she has a twin out of wedlock, he announces they are under the curse of
illegitimacy.

Really? Does the wise, loving and compassionate God curse innocent
children born out of wedlock? What fault they had in this? Could they
avoid being conceived? Is this not ascribing injustice to God? What this
man is saying is blasphemy. But let us proceed.

Larson asks about the ethnicity of Veronica and when she reveals her
Honduran and Mexican background he says, so you have both Aztec and
Mayan curses.

Okay. Now we know that anyone with Aztec or Mayan ancestry is under
curse. That is only the benign of the list. According to Larson everyone
who is born in a religion other than the one he belongs to is under
curse. Muslims worship Allah, a false god. They are definitely under
curse. Of course if you ask a Muslim exorcist he will tell you that all
non-Muslims are under curse. But we don’t want to split hair. The
question we’d like to ask Larson is whether this woman had any say in
the choice of her parents. Didn’t God make that choice for her? So why
would He curse her for what only He is responsible? If being born to
non-Christian parents brings the curse of God, shouldn’t God be cursed
for making that happen?

Here comes the fun part. Larson orders two persons to hold Veronica
and IMMEDIATELY she acts as if she is demon possessed. She was okay
until a second ago, acting perfectly normal. There was no sign of demon
possession in her. But as soon as Larson tells the folks to hold her, a
demon jumps in her, in no time, so Larson can expel it. She becomes
hysterical and starts hissing, cursing and shouting. “Get away from me,”
she growls. Is she really possessed? She sure acts like it. If not,
why is she behaving in this fashion? We will get to that in Part III.
In this part we are going to expose the exorcist.

Larson asks one of the ancestors of Veronica to come forward and
speak through her. He specifies, “The one who is angry.” As soon as
Larson utters the word angry Veronica acts angry. What a rude ancestor!
What happened to your manners spirit? Instead of saying, hi, how do you
do, I am so and so, what can I do for you, this spirit greets Larson
with wild eyes and screams. Oh come on. Take it easy spirit. Larson is
here to help your descendant. Don’t you want to thank him?

Veronica has millions of ancestors. Just do the math. She has 2
parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great great
grandparents, 32, great great great grandparents. Go back ten
generations and you can count over 1000 of her ancestors. Go back 20
generations and you can find over 1,000,000 ancestors. If you go back 30
generations, give or take 700 years, the number of Veronica’s ancestors
exceeds one billion. Let us stop here. If we go further we will find
that her ancestors are the same ancestor of all of us, including
Larson’s. They walked out of Africa some 30-40 thousand years ago and
yes they were pagan. Has Larson broken the curse of his own ancestry? If
not he better hurry or he may become possessed, if he is not already.

The most extraordinary part of this exorcism is that all Veronica’s
ancestors have come to possess her. They are all there ready to jump
into her body. As soon as Larson says he wants to talk to the angry one,
that ancestor’s spirit snarls. How did this spirit know that he is the
angry one of all? Among all the billions of ancestors, was he the only
one who had anger problem?

Larson addresses the angry spirit. “What did they do to you?” He
asks authoritatively. “I don’t know,” responds Veronica’s ancestor
through her.

Come on spirit. You could easily identify yourself among all the
billions of ancestors as the angry one and responded in a fraction of
second with your rumble and you don’t know what they did to you? Larson
will reveal your little secret. He knows everything.

“You don’t know, or you don’t want to tell? What did they do to you?” Larson shouts.

The spirit looks confused. He does not know what to say. He stares at
Larson, bewildered. Okay Bob, tell him what they did to him.

“I know what ultimately they wanted to do is sacrifice you,” Larson
informs the spirit. “Did they get the job done?” The spirit does not
know. It seems this is the first time someone told him what they did to
him. “Did they spill your blood?” asks Larson scornfully and then
answers his own question. “They took your heart; offered it to the god,”
he whispers. The spirit hisses. “First they break you,” explains
Larson. “But there is a God in heaven. Stay focused here (pointing at
his own eyes), not the god your people worship. He’s in my eyes. He is in me. He wants to help you. Say I want this god.”

Veronica is subdued. She is on the verge of breaking down in tears. She softly repeats I want this god.

But wait a minute. Now it is me who is getting confused. I thought
Larson was talking to the spirit of the ancestor. If this ancestor is
possessing Veronica’s body, how come she is responding? Or are the
spirit and Veronica one and the same?

Larson asks Veronica to repeat after him, “I want peace.” She repeats
with her broken voice. Larson then asks her to say I am angry.
Suddenly Veronica disappears and the spirit comes in hissing and
snarling. This seems to be a bit confusing. Who is who?

The only explanation I can find is that Larson asks Veronica to say I
am angry. She misunderstands him and thinks she has to act angry, which
leads to believe Veronica and spirit are one and the same.

When Larson asks Veronica to say I am filled with anger and murder,
she acts like the angry spirit that possess her and when he asks her to
say I want to be at peace she suddenly becomes Veronica, the woman who
is pained. She acts out everything Larson says.

Larson makes Veronica to repeat after him, “The God who gave his son
to die for me will give me peace, if I forgive those who sacrificed me.”

Okay, now it becomes clear that Larson was talking to the angry
spirit of Veronica’s ancestor all along. It was Veronica’s mistake in
thinking that he is talking to her. Good. Now everything is clear. The
spirit is saved and he is told to go in peace with Jesus to heaven.
Jesus must be standing behind the door waiting. He goes happily,
finally set free. After so many centuries of torment Larson restores his
peace in just two minutes. Neither Jesus could do that nor God.
Veronica is also set free. Nothing brings more tears to my eyes than a
happy ending.

This poor ancestor was a victim of a barbaric religion. They
sacrificed him and took his heart offering it to their god. The
ancestor himself did not remember any of that. Larson was kind enough to
remind him. How did Larson know about all this? Maybe that is the
secret of his trade so we won’t ask. What we want to know is why
Veronica’s ancestor was condemned when he was a victim and why was he
haunting his descendant? Why he was not given salvation after suffering
such a gruesome death? I don’t understand how justice works with God.
He punishes innocent people for sins of their parents and ancestors. He
sends people born before Jesus to hell. Muhammad said that those born
before him will go to hell. But let us ignore him. He was just an
impostor. Let us listen to what Larson says. Do people who had no
chance to meet Christ because they died before he was born go to hell?
Is this justice? How can we reconcile the fact that all the Aztecs,
Mayans, Hindus, Buddhist, Taoists, animists and pagans go to hell with
the repeated claim that God loves everyone?

Larson then calls Veronica. The spirit has left her and now she is
back in her body. He instructs her to say, “The Aztecs and the Mayans,
all of them are blood coveters.” Veronica says the first part but reacts
angrily when her ancestors are demonized. She howls. Is it she or is
the ancestor back? There does not seem to be coordination between the
exorcist and the subject. This is an act you improvise as you play it.
She is not supposed to act angry as Veronica. Veronica is the victim.
It must be that pesky ancestor again. Why did he come back? Wasn’t he
saved and didn’t Jesus take him to heaven? Why would he part company
with his savior and return to pester his descendant? That must be a
crazy ancestor.

Larson bangs the Bible on Veronica’s head. He points his finger
menacingly at the spirit possessing her and commands, “I told you to
stay out of the way. Go down.”

Go down? But Mr. Larson, I believe you handed him to Jesus to take
him up. Did you lie to him? Is that why he came back? Or are you ad
libbing and making the whole thing up?

Larson then calls on Veronica to come back and say with him, “I break
the curse of the bastard on my children.” Veronica repeats the words,
but the spirit jumps back in her and makes menacing faces at Larson. I
am not a woman, but if I were and had bastard children and someone said
they are cursed I will not make menacing faces at him. I will kick his
ass and throw him out of the room. That is when I am not possessed. When
I am possessed I will smash his nose and break his balls. How can
innocent children born out of wedlock be cursed? What kind of sick god
would curse children for a sin they had no part in it? Who assigns
souls to fetuses? If it is God then shouldn’t He be cursed? Einstein
said two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity; and I am
not sure about the universe.

Veronica and the spirit switch their positions back and forth.
Veronica is subdued and pained while the spirit is defiant and angry. At
one point Veronica says that her grandpa murdered her grandma. But the
voice is that of the angry spirit. She is supposed to use her own
voice. This tragedy happened to her not to the spirit possessing her.
If what she says is true this woman has all the reasons to be haunted.
But she is not haunted by demons or spirits. She is haunted by the
tragic event that took place in her family. She needs a psychotherapist,
not an exorcist, to get over her psychological pain.

Veronica is finally set free from her ancestor. Everyone cheers and
Larson glorifies God. He asks Veronica who did this for you, who gets
the glory and who has the power to set you free. Veronica responds,
Jesus, the Lord and the Lord alone, my God, my great God. This is only
the appearance. In reality it is Larson who is claiming all the credit.
All this theatrics is false modesty. Remember that he claimed, God “is
in my eyes. He is in me.” He is claiming all that glory that comes with
being an instrument of God for himself.

The video has more theatrics. Larson has made many other videos that
are available on Youtube. Let us study one more. I invite you to watch
his other videos and analyze them with the same critical mind. Analyze
the videos of other exorcists and you’ll find they are all charlatans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLz3oS_GG_s


In the above video a woman named Jennifer, says she feels nothingness
and she does not feel God. She then says she does not have any bad
memories, except that last year her childhood girlfriend told her that
she had memories that her neighbor might have molested her when she was 4
years old. This made Jennifer think that maybe she too had been
molested, but she does not remember this happening. She remembered going
to her girlfriend’s house playing and the guy, but did not remember
anything about being sexually molested. The fact is that if she does
remember, it is very likely that it has not happened. Sexual molestation
of children leaves a deep scar that cannot be easily forgotten. Some
women make such claims even if it is not true. They do it to portray
themselves as victims for attention and sympathy.

Larson tries to make Jennifer remember that she was molested. “I want
the child who knows the truth to come to me.” He says. What child?
That child is now a grown up woman. He says to be an exorcist. His
expertise is allegedly in call on the spirits and demons. Split
personalities of one individual are all the same individual so there is
no spirit of a child in Jennifer. There are no different spirits for
each stage or year of our life. “I want the child who knows the truth
to come to me,” is sheer nonsense.

Jennifer goes into trance and starts acting like a little girl.
Larson hugs her and says, “Come on sweet heart! Who hurt you?” Jennifer
becomes hysteric. Larson encourages that behavior. “That is okay,” he
says. “I want angry Jennifer.” He grabs Jennifer by her neck. “Look at
me. Are you protecting the 4 year old?” Who are you talking to dear
Bob? Are you talking to Jenifer or to a ghost that you have met in her?

Jennifer switches from one personality to another – sometimes acting
as herself, sometimes as a 4 years old child and sometimes as an angry
ghost that growls, snarls and curses. She looks confused as to which
personality she should have.

Larson treats Jennifer roughly. He has to treat the bad ghosts
roughly, not the poor victims. But Larson knows what he is doing. He
wants to shock his subjects so they become angry and start putting up
the show for him. Jenifer looks frustrated. She says, “She (the little
child) doesn’t know.” This is what she said in the beginning. She said
she has no recollection of being molested. But Larson wants her to say
that she has been molested. “You know!” he tells her commandingly. “Now
tell me what happened. Do you know who did it?” he shouts. Jennifer is
angry. “Nothing happened to her,” she shouts back. But Larson is not
going to give up. “That is a lie.” He yells. “That is a lie and you know
it.”

How do you know this is a lie Bob? Where you there or a ghost inside
you has told you about it? How can you be so sure she is lying?

Larson places the Bible on Jennifer’s head and yelps, “Who are you?
Who are you? [What is] your name? Your name? Your name spirit? Who are
you?” Jennifer growls and wiggles acting as if she is possessed.
Finally, she utters a word. It is incomprehensible. Larson recognizes
the spirit. He knows all the billions of spirits who have lived in the
last hundreds of thousands of years (or is it 6,000 years?) and knows
who is who, and recognizes them only by their first name. The occupant
of Jennifer happens to be the ghost of someone who lived 150 generations
ago (roughly 3500). Larson wants to know how the ghost got into
Jenifer. “Witchcraft,” reveals the ghost through Jenifer.

Larson then asks the name of his chief. Jennifer does not know it and
therefore her ghost remains silent, sneering at Larson. As usual
Larson knows the answer to his question. He puts his face close to the
face of Jennifer and derisively says, “Hello Jezebel. We meet again. You
know! It gets a little tiresome to see your ugly face.” Only Larson can
see Jezebel. We can only see Jenifer, who is not ugly. Jennifer is
offended and retorts “me too.”

The cleverest con artists often commit the dumbest mistakes. Here is
Larson’s big blunder. He names Jezebel as the spirit possessing Jenifer
when we never hear the name Jezebel coming out or Jennifer’s mouth. How
did he come to that conclusion? There are only two ways he could have
known it. He either has a personal demon that informs him the secrets of
the unknown or he is lying. He commits another mistake when he says
how he feels about meeting Jezebel’s ugly face. How can he see the
ghost’s face when the only way the dead spirits communicate is through
the possessed subjects? And ff Jezebel is using Jennifer to
communicate, why all information about her comes from Larson and not
from the mouth of Jenifer? It is not difficult to spot a conman.

Who the hell is Jezebel anyway? Jezebel is a biblical character from 9^th
century B.C. She was a princess identified in the Book of Kings as the
daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre (Phoenicia) and the wife of Ahab, king
of north Israel- a very powerful woman. She pertains to the time of
the divided kingdom. The Israelites had formed two kingdoms. The
northern kingdom was called the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and the
southern kingdom was known as the Kingdom of Judah.

Jezabel-and-Ahab-Meeting-Elijah-in-Naboth-s-Vineyard

Rivalries between the two kingdoms were rife. Each had its own god
and religious book and tried to discredit the god of the other in order
to undermine their legitimacy. Jezebel and Ahab glorified Baal. In the
Kingdom of Judah, Jehovah was worshiped as god. The fact that Jews
worshiped different gods and different religions casts doubt on the
authenticity of Moses. Some Biblical scholars have concluded that Moses
is a myth. Whether he was a myth or a real person, there is little doubt
that the stories attributed to him are mythical and his so called
books, the first five chapters in the Bible, are apocryphal, written
centuries after his death. (See Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Elliott Friedman)



Jezebel was an Arab. This was 15 centuries before Islam when Arabs
and Jews intermingled and intermarried. The irreconcilable enmity
between these two people starts with Muhammad and will end ONLY when
Islam is discredited and eradicated, or as Muslims wish, the Jews are
exterminated. Anyone telling you otherwise is too ignorant of Islam.

After Ahab’s death the prophet Elisha plotted to overthrow his house.
He killed his two young sons and bribed his officials to murder
Jezebel. The corrupted officials threw their queen out of a window and
left her corpse to be eaten by dogs. Jezebel became associated with
false prophets and false gods. History is written by the victor. Had
it been the other way round, Elisha would have been remembered as a
false prophet and Baal would have become the chief god of the Jews. Far
from being a holy man Elisha was a murderous priest very much like
Khomeini. The world knows the truth about Khomeini, but in Iran he is
promoted as a holy imam. People go to his grave and pray for their
cures. Imagine if the future was only left with the Iranian version of
history. Then everyone would have thought that that mass murderer was a
holy man.

The_Murder_of_Jezebel

Baal found worshipers among Arabs and finally became their chief god
in Mecca. He was known affectionately by his title, al ilah (the god)
or simply allah. His symbol, the crescent, became the symbol of Islam.

Larson now has identified his favorite nemesis, of course without any
help from Jenifer who never said anything about Jezebel. What is the
point of all these interrogations if Larson knows the answer to his
questions? If you watch his videos and pay attention to him and not the
the acts of his subjects, you’ll see when he asks a question, he also
provides the answer. His subjects play along and put up a show
pretending to be possessed. Jezebel seems to be ubiquitous in Larson’s
exorcisms. She is in most his female subjects.

At this point Jenifer can no longer hold her laughter. Larson also
laughs. This is a very telling moment. They both know they are putting
up an act and there is no Jezebel. But they also know that the game must
be played. Jezebel is like the emperor’s invisible cloak. Both Larson
and Jenifer gain something from this farce. What is in it for Jenifer?
That is the subject I will discuss in Part III.

Larson asks, “What is so funny.” “I don’t know what you are doing,”
responds the giggling Jenifer. Who is the speaker here? It can’t be
Jezebel because, as we learned, the angry she and Larson share a long
story together to the extent that they are tired of each other’s ugly
faces. Jezebel wouldn’t say “I don’t know what you are doing.” She has
been through this with Larson time and time again. So it must be
Jennifer. She is the one who is new to this game and confused. Also the
voice that utters these words is not the angry voice of a mad spirit. It
is the sweet voice of Jenifer. But Larson addresses his imaginary
invisible rival.

“O rly? Let’s get this,” responds Larson now looking serious, into Jenifer’s eyes. “You are a demon. I am a real exorcist.
This is not the movie.” Come on Bob. Let’s get serious. Jezebel was a
human, not a demon. If you know her for such a long time how come you
don’t know what she is?

Also can you please tell us what Jezebel has to do with Jennifer’s
alleged child molestation? There are billions of dead souls that
according to you are going around haunting people. How come you always
find Jezebel in most of your female subjects?

More theatrics follow. Larson shouts at the ghost of Jezebel and
orders her to get out of the 4 year old child and out of the angry
Jenifer. We already discussed that there is only one Jenifer. We don’t
have a different spirit for every year or every day of our life. Larson
then places the Bible on Jenifer’s head and she shakes and wiggles and
screams and screeches and finally releases herself from the claws of the
evil Jezebel.

What is really going on? If Jezebel is only a fiction why does
Jenifer act in this way? Why she and other Larson’s subjects cooperate
with him when apparently they are not paid actors and seem to be
genuine? That is the million dollars question that I’ll answer in part
III.


Part III: Psychological Disorders Explain Demon Possessions

In part one of this article, I explained why the belief in demons and
specially demon possession is denying the wisdom and fairness of God
and attributing insanity to the maker of the universe. In part two, I
analyzed two cases of exorcism performed by Reverend Bob Larson, one of
the leading exorcists in America with ministry in over 100 countries and
showed that he is not getting any information from his subjects or the
alleged spirits that possess them. The information comes from him. The
subjects merely put up a show that validates what he says.

In this part I will explain the mental cases that are misinterpreted
as demon possession why people act is such a fashion. The answer to
this question is in psychology, not in demonology.

Each case is different. Several psychological disorders can explain the behavior of the so called demons possessed.



Histrionic Personality Disorder

People suffering from this disorder have an excessive need for
attention and engage in inappropriate attentions seeking behavior. They
feel unappreciated when they are not the center of attention and do
everything to draw attention to themselves. They may do something
dramatic, exaggerate and create scenes. They can be sexually provocative
beyond what is appropriate for a social context. Their emotional
expressions, although intense, is shallow. They maybe excessively
concerned for their appearance and phish for compliment and are easily
upset by critical comments about how they look. Please note in the
above video how Jennifer retorts saying “me too” when Bob Larson tells
her how he is tired of seeing her ugly face. Another important feature
of people with HPD is their high degree of suggestibility. Their
opinions and feelings are easily influenced by others and by current
fads. They may be overly trusting, especially of strong authority
figures whom they see as magically solving their problems. They have a
tendency to play hunches and to adopt convictions quickly. Histrionic
people often use somatic symptoms (of physical illness) to garner
attention.



Somatization Disorder

Those with this disorder suffer from many clinically significant
pains that cannot be explained by any known general medical condition
and is not a direct effect of a substance. The patient can suffer from a
variety of ailments but no cause can be detected through X ray. They
seek help from several doctors who can find no cause for their sickness.
They can also have hallucination. People suffering from somatization
disorder may come to believe that they are possessed.



Psychosis

Psychosis is a broad term to describe severe form of psychiatric
disorder, during which the individual may experience hallucinations,
delusions and impaired insight. It is a mental state in which the
patient loses his or her grip of reality. A psychotic person may go
through catatonic experiences of schizophrenia and bipolar 1 disorder.
Bipolar 1 disorder differs from Bipolar 2 because of its severity and
is generally accompanied with manic episodes.



Catatonic Disorder

Catatonia is described by DSM IV (American Diagnostic and Statistics Manual 4^th
edition) as motoric immobility or excessive motor activity, extreme
negativism or mutism, peculiarities of voluntary movement, echolalia
(involuntary repetition of either ambient sounds or of vocalizations
made by another person), or echopraxia (involuntary repetition or
imitation of another person’s action). Catatonia is the direct
psychological consequence of a general medical condition. Catatonic
sufferers express extreme negativism and resist all instructions or
maintenance of rigid posture against attempts to be moved. A typical
voluntary movement of the patient is evidenced by posturing, stereotyped
movements, prominent mannerisms, or prominent grimacing that are typically behaviors of the so called demon-possessed.

Schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia can count for extreme cases of demon possessions.
Schizophrenia is delusional thinking. It involves distortion of
perception (hallucination) language and thought process (disorganized
speech), along with disorganized and catatonic behavior.

Delusions are erroneous beliefs that involve a misinterpretation of
perceptions or experiences. The individual may have persecutory
delusions, believing that someone or a group or people are after him to
hurt him. Muhammad, for example, was haunted by the delusion that Jews
and Christians had found out that he is the promised one in their books
and had been after him since he was a child in order to kill him. The
absurdity of this delusion is evidence of its schizophrenic nature.
Persecutory delusions are most common in schizophrenic patients. The
person believes he or she is being tormented, followed, tricked, spied
on, or ridiculed. The individual said to be possessed believes he is
being watched and controlled. Delusions can be shared. Shared Psychotic
Disorder is the presence of a delusion in an individual or a group of
individuals who are influenced by someone else who has a longer-standing
delusion with similar content. The delusion of being tormented,
persecuted, victimized and ridiculed is common among all Muslims. All
these riots and demonstrations to demand the world to respect them is
the sign of Muslims’ shared psychosis with their prophet. According to
DSM IV, “the difference between a delusion and a strongly held idea is
sometimes difficult to make and depends in part on the degree of
conviction with which the belief is held despite clear contradictory
evidence regarding its veracity.”

Hallucinations may be auditory, visual, olfactory, gustatory and
tactile. The auditory hallucination is by far the most common. The
person can hear voices that are perceived as distinct from the person’s
own thoughts. According to DSM IV, certain types of auditory
hallucinations (i.e., two or more voices conversing with one another or
voices maintaining a running commentary on the person’s thoughts or
behavior) have been considered to be particularly characteristic of
Schizophrenia. If these types of hallucinations are present, then only
this single symptom is needed to satisfy Criterion A.”

Schizophrenia does not account for all those who are said to be
possessed. It however explains the severest forms of such cases. In the
severest cases of schizophrenia visual hallucination is also present.
The patient can see the entity that torments him.

Interestingly, there are a few hadiths that are clear examples of Muhammad’s visual hallucination.

Bukhari (7: 71: 660) reports a hadith from Aisha who narrated,

Magic was worked on Allah’s Apostle so that he used to think that he
had sexual relations with his wives while he actually had not (Sufyan
said: That is the hardest kind of magic as it has such an effect). Then
one day he said, “O ‘Aisha do you know that Allah has instructed me
concerning the matter I asked Him about? Two men came to me and one of
them sat near my head and the other sat near my feet. The one near my
head asked the other. What is wrong with this man?’ The latter replied
he is under the effect of magic The first one asked, Who has worked
magic on him?’ The other replied Labid bin Al-A’sam, a man from Bani
Zuraiq who was an ally of the Jews and was a hypocrite.’ The first one
asked, What material did he use?’ The other replied, ‘A comb and the
hair stuck to it.’ The first one asked, ‘Where (is that)?’ The other
replied. ‘In a skin of pollen of a male date palm tree kept under a
stone in the well of Dharwan’

Based on DSM IV, this hadith alone is enough to diagnose Muhammad
with schizophrenia or as he himself had originally thought, with demon
possession.



Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a disease traditionally linked to spirit and demon
possessions. It is a neurological disorder (brain illness)
characterized by seizures. The causes of such seizures include brain
trauma, strokes, brain cancer, and drug and alcohol misuse among others.

Temporal lobe seizures produce complex visual hallucinations of
people, scenes, animals, as well as distortions of visual perception.





The horror movie Exorcism of Emily Rose was based on the real story
of Anneliese Michel. At the age of 17 Anneliese started having seizures.
Her body would tighten and shake and she also heard voices and had
visual hallucinations. When she was taken to hospital a neurologist
diagnosed her with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. However, an older woman
convinced Anneliese’s parents that she was demons possessed. They
called a priest who performed exorcism on her for eight months, during
which the young girl’s health deteriorated. To get rid of her “demon”
Anneliese did not eat or drink for several days. She eventually died of
starvation and dehydration.

TLE has no cure but it can be controlled with medication and the patient can live a relatively normal life without seizures.



Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome is a tic disorder, characterized by multiple
physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. TS is an
urge to exclaim obscene words
or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks (coprolalia). Tourette
is often associated with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD).



Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder DID, formerly known as Multiple
Personality Disorder is defined by DSM IV as the presence of two or more
distinct identities or personality states that recurrently take control
of behavior. Each personality state may be experienced as if it has a
distinct personal history, self-image and identity, including a separate
name. Usually there is a primary identity that carries the individual’s
given name and is passive, dependent, guilty and depressed. The
alternate identities frequently have different names and characteristics
that contrast with the primary identity (e.g., are hostile, controlling
and self-destructive). Particular identities may emerge in specific
circumstances and may differ in reported age and gender, vocabulary,
general knowledge, or predominant affect.



Factitious Disorder

A factitious disorder is fabricating or exaggerating the symptoms of
mental or physical disorder. Factitious Disorder differs from
Malingering in that the motivation in the symptom production in
Malingering is external, such as avoiding school, whereas there are no
external incentives in producing and exaggerating sickness in Factitious
Disorder. A person with Factitious Disorder may believe to be sick and
act that way for a variety of benefits including attention, nurturance
and sympathy. I heard of a woman who was bedridden for decades while
her aging mother took care of her. When her mother died and there was no
one to take care of her she got out of the bed and resumed a normal
life.

The above is a short list of some mental disorders and illnesses that ignorant people misinterpret as spirit possession.

In this video we see a woman suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,
for being sexually molested by her babysitter, some 50 years ago. She
has recurring thoughts of death and suicide. She can be helped by a
mental health provider who is familiar with Eye Movement Desensitization
and Processing – a simple technique that would take between four to six
sessions.


Exorcism does not relieve people from their psychological trauma. At
best it gives them false hope. Larson is performing hypnosis on his
subjects. Hypnosis works if done properly by a trained procreational.
Larson is a con artist, a charlatan who is after money and name. He has
not qualifications to perform hypnosis. The feeling of relief in his
subjects is a placebo effect and short lived. People suffering from
mental disorders need to visit a trained psychologist or a psychiatrist
not a demagogue quack.

mungkin ya mungkin tidak.

Yang jelas gue pernah ketemu langsung mahluk gaib 3x. Di rumah temen gue dan juga rumah kontrakan gue sebelumnya.