Can Someone Help Me With This?

[suzie]

Hey guys :-) you might remember me from a year or two ago... long story short I grew up in a fairly liberal Catholic family, was agnostic but then had massive freak out when my boyfriend decided to move in with me... convinced I was going to hell etc. Months of obsessing and a diagnosis of scrupulosity later I'm back to being mostly ok with things on the religion front. One thing still bothers me, its something that I was never really exposed to growing up- demon possession. Haha it sounds crazy but the topic just keeps popping up in my life lately! IT started when I read an article about a show that an australian comedian did (cant remember his name but he has a show with father bob on triple j if any other aussies can think of his name?) A tv series about religion. On the last episode he had a 'demon' exorcised. The sounded pretty freaky and said he was vomiting and stuff but I didn.t watch the footage as I was worried it would freak me out too much! Also, our neighbours wife w as telling my partber that she was posessed before she joined the church they are in now... that doesn.t freak me out now but it did at the time!! The latest thing that has freaked me out was when I went to visit my sister. She is Chrisitan (not Catholic. They are basically worshipping satan according to her!!) She asked if I would like to come to a church talk with her, I said no but ended up waiting outside where I overheard some stuff- the guy was talking about posession and how it can be mistaken for mental illness. He stressed that the students studying psychology (it was held at the university church my sister attends) should be mindful of this with mentally ill patients. This made me pretty angry and upset- I'm a nurse and would hate to think that religion was making its way into healthcare like this :-( it also got me thinking- what if it is true!?! So now I'm a bit of a mess and I.m just wondering if anyone who knows a bit more about so called demon posession could put my mind at ease!

thanks guys :-)

[suzie]

Oh also- I'm studying a course on stroke at the moment- I noticed that the world health organisation lists possession as a form of altered state of consciousness... will try to post a link here when I'm not at work!!

[suzie]

Hi Human :-)

To be honest, I don't know much about my sister's church. Any talk of religion seems to trigger my anxiety so lately I've been avoiding it and my anxiety had been almost non existent. I didn't think they are super into that kind of thing until that talk I overheard- my sister never brought it up and she had previously laughed at pentecostals, not 100% sure what exactly sure was laughing about though!

[suzie]

 

 

Hi Human :-)

To be honest, I don't know much about my sister's church. Any talk of religion seems to trigger my anxiety so lately I've been avoiding it and my anxiety had been almost non existent. I didn't think they are super into that kind of thing until that talk I overheard- my sister never brought it up and she had previously laughed at pentecostals, not 100% sure what exactly sure was laughing about though!

suzie,

Try to avoid those religious anxiety triggers.

I hope you find the information you need about demon possession.

Thanks for choosing a noble profession.

Peace,

Human

Thanks Human :-) I do try to avoid stuff that makes me anxious but it's not always possible unfortunately! Thanks for your kind words :-)

[Orbit]

Demon possession doesn't exist. It's a name that Christians give to psychological/psychotic symptoms they don't understand, or to people who refuse to conform to their religion. There are no demons, there is no devil.

[suzie]

Demon possession doesn't exist. It's a name that Christians give to psychological/psychotic symptoms they don't understand, or to people who refuse to conform to their religion. There are no demons, there is no devil.

Hi Orbit, that was always my interpretation of it- didn't Christians previously believe that epileptic fits were caused by demons? And now we know that there is an organic cause for it. The thing that deals me or is the stories I have heard of extreme reactions of people when exorcisms are performed.

[TrueFreedom]

People can react pretty strangely to "demonic" triggers.  The atheist comedian, John Safran, even went into a psychotic state when he subjected himself to an exorcism from Bob Larson at the end of his TV documentary series, John Safran vs God.  He claims that he wasn't acting.  Though I don't recall a psychological explanation for it, Derren Brown has provided demonstrations for artificial demonic and holy spirit activities.  He has also demonstrated getting people to do terrible things with hypnotic triggers.

[suzie]

People can react pretty strangely to "demonic" triggers. The atheist comedian, John Safran, even went into a psychotic state when he subjected himself to an exorcism from Bob Larson at the end of his TV documentary series, John Safran vs God. He claims that he wasn't acting. Though I don't recall a psychological explanation for it, Derren Brown has provided demonstrations for artificial demonic and holy spirit activities. He has also demonstrated getting people to do terrible things with hypnotic triggers.

Thanks TrueFreedom :-) John Safran was the guy i was referring to in my original post. Did you see the documentary? Thanks for the Derren Brown stuff- I found it reassuring that he was able to replicate faith 'healing' :-) will have to watch some of his stuff when I'm not so busy with work and uni!

[TrueFreedom]

 

People can react pretty strangely to "demonic" triggers. The atheist comedian, John Safran, even went into a psychotic state when he subjected himself to an exorcism from Bob Larson at the end of his TV documentary series, John Safran vs God. He claims that he wasn't acting. Though I don't recall a psychological explanation for it, Derren Brown has provided demonstrations for artificial demonic and holy spirit activities. He has also demonstrated getting people to do terrible things with hypnotic triggers.

Thanks TrueFreedom :-) John Safran was the guy i was referring to in my original post. Did you see the documentary? Thanks for the Derren Brown stuff- I found it reassuring that he was able to replicate faith 'healing' :-) will have to watch some of his stuff when I'm not so busy with work and uni!

 

Yes.  I thoroughly enjoyed John Safran vs God.    I'm also a huge Derren Brown fan.

[TrueFreedom]

Are the John Safran vs God. and the Derren Brown material online?

Can anyone provide links to them?

Thanks.

(please quote me so I'll see your reply listed in my notifications. thanks)

 

 

[OralRobert]

 

Demon possession doesn't exist. It's a name that Christians give to psychological/psychotic symptoms they don't understand, or to people who refuse to conform to their religion. There are no demons, there is no devil.

Hi Orbit, that was always my interpretation of it- didn't Christians previously believe that epileptic fits were caused by demons? And now we know that there is an organic cause for it. The thing that deals me or is the stories I have heard of extreme reactions of people when exorcisms are performed.

True that epileptic seizure's were once thought to be demonic...and theirs your case in point!

 

Religion has always used the "holy supernatural" to explain things they don't understand. Hell the hole system is set up because humans have long been looking for explanations to things not understood and the fact of life in general. People's lack of understanding of the natural world has been keeping the pews full and the tithes rolling for ages. Religion breeds ignorance to self propigate its existence. Its a scourge on humanity.

[TrueFreedom]