September 8, By Joseph P. Article continues after advertisement. Joseph P. Laycock Joseph P. Laycock editor is an assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University and a co-editor of the journal Nova Religio.
He lives in Austin, Texas. Just Because You're Paranoid Danielle Evans on Mrs. Find CrimeReads on Facebook. Read More. Twitter My Tweets. Image source, AFP. Priests from around the world attend the course. Why is demand growing? Exorcism in Italy a job 'too scary' for young priests The country where exorcisms are on the rise. When do priests perform exorcisms? Image source, Getty Images. A number of countries have reported an increase in demand for exorcisms.
What happens in an exorcism? What are the objections? Some victims have died in rituals linked to exorcism. Related Topics. Catholicism Vatican City. Published 11 April Published 3 April Published 30 March Published 1 December Conference of Catholic Bishops had Exorcisms and Related Supplications —a handbook containing the rite of exorcism— translated into English.
The rite had been updated in and again a few years later, but this was the first time it was issued in English since it had been standardized in The inescapable question is: Why?
Or rather: Why now? Why, in our modern age, are so many people turning to the Church for help in banishing incorporeal fiends from their body? And what does this resurgent interest tell us about the figurative demons tormenting contemporary society?
In , a German psychologist named Traugott Oesterreich collected historical eyewitness accounts in his book Possession: Demoniacal and Other. One incident that crops up again and again involves a young woman named Magdalene in Orlach, Germany. Late in the winter of , Magdalene began seeing strange things in the barn where she tended cows. By the following year, she was being tormented by voices, sensations of physical assault, and, according to witnesses, spontaneous outbursts of flames.
According to some accounts, a priest conducted an exorcism on Roland at Georgetown University Hospital, a Jesuit institution in D. Roland and his parents eventually left their home in Maryland to stay with extended family in St. There, priests carried out at least 20 exorcisms over the course of a month.
He reportedly vomited so profusely that the exorcist performing the rite had to wear a raincoat, and he fought so violently that 10 people were required to hold him down. In April , several hours into an exorcism, Roland finally surfaced from his trancelike state. Louisa had recently given birth to their first child, a son, who was tucked between his parents in bed.
At one point during the night, she awoke and found herself paralyzed. All she could move were her eyes, and they darted around the room in horror. When Louisa told friends and family about the episode, most shrugged it off. Some suggested that it might have been a lingering effect of having just undergone a strenuous delivery she had needed a cesarean section.
Louisa decided they were probably right. For a required internship that fall, she chose to travel to Kathmandu, Nepal, to work for an organization that provides aid to impoverished women and children in the region. After a month in Kathmandu, Louisa became infected with E. When she was discharged, she debated flying home right away. But now she was drained and weary of her surroundings.
The night after she left the hospital, Louisa locked the door to her apartment, secured the window with a wooden bar, and went to bed. It seemed close: She could feel the hot exhales on the back of her right ear and her neck. How is this possible? Her grandmother, who was both an American Indian and a devout Catholic, had warned her about them.
If Louisa ever encountered evil spirits, her grandmother had told her, she should do her best to ignore them, because they feed on attention.
Louisa tried, but the breathing continued, a heavy, rhythmic rasp. Then, after a minute or so, she felt a hand brush against her collarbone. At that sensation, which to this day she cannot account for, Louisa leapt out of her sleeping bag and ran to turn on the light. She swears that as soon as she flipped the switch, she heard a pack of stray dogs break out in wild yelps. By dawn Louisa had cleared out, walking several miles to the U.
Embassy in Kathmandu. She took the next flight back to Orlando. Louisa had yet another incident in , just after giving birth to her second child, a daughter. This episode was more like the first—she woke up abruptly, only to find her body locked in place—but with the added shock of what seemed to be visual hallucinations, including one of a giant spider crawling into her bedroom.
Louisa was so jolted that she barely ate or slept for three days. So Louisa turned to the internet. Sleep paralysis seemed like a promising explanation. Hovering near full consciousness, the person can experience paralysis and hallucinations. She started to wonder whether something was pursuing her. Amid consuming fear, she waded into some darker internet waters: elaborate descriptions and YouTube testimonials of people who claimed that a demon or some other evil entity had dragged them down to hell.
When she told him that she had used a Ouija board after her grandfather had passed away a couple of years earlier, he told her to get rid of it, along with anything else that could be construed as occult: tarot cards, amulets, pagan symbols, even healing crystals and birthstones. Any of these things, he told her, could serve as a doorway for a demon.
It may surprise some Catholics to learn just how literally the modern Church interprets Satan and his army of demons. While many people today understand the devil as a metaphor for sin, temptation, and unresolvable evil in the world, the pope consistently repudiates such allegorical readings.
In sermons, interviews, and occasionally in tweets, Pope Francis has declared that Satan—whom he has referred to as Beelzebub, the Seducer, and the Great Dragon—is a literal being devoted to deceiving and debasing humans.
Exorcisms also occur in some Protestant and nondenominational Churches, but the Catholic Church has the most formal, rigorous, and long-standing tradition. The Church sees the influence that demons and their leader, the devil, can have on human beings as existing on a spectrum. Demonic oppression—in which a demon pressures a person to accept evil—lies on one end.
In a crucial step, the person requesting an exorcism must undergo a psychiatric evaluation with a mental-health professional. The vast majority of cases end there, as many of the individuals claiming possession are found to be suffering from psychiatric issues such as schizophrenia or a dissociative disorder, or to have recently gone off psychotropic medication. For some, being told they do not suffer from demonic possession can be a letdown. Father Vincent Lampert, the exorcist from Indianapolis, remembered a young man who came to him seeking an exorcism but was told he was experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia.
At this point he may begin looking for what the Church considers the classic signs of demonic possession: facility in a language the person has never learned; physical strength beyond his or her age or condition; access to secret knowledge; and a vehement aversion to God and sacred objects, including crucifixes and holy water.
Check out the full table of contents and find your next story to read. Only a very small number of exorcism requests make it through the discernment process. The Catholic exorcists I interviewed—each with more than a decade of experience in the role—had worked on only a handful of cases deemed to be true possession.
The ritual begins with the exorcist, who is typically assisted by several people, sprinkling holy water on the possessed person. The exorcist makes the sign of the cross and kneels to recite the Litany of the Saints, followed by several readings of scripture.
He then addresses the demon or demons, establishing the ground rules they must abide by: to reveal themselves when called, give their names when asked to identify themselves, and leave when dismissed.
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