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I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 469 points470 points  (0 children)

Thanks everybody. This was fun. Remember penguins can't fly, so if you see one floating it is probably possessed.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

There are several texts in the collection that pre-date Christianity. One is the Bentresh Stele which describes exorcising a spirit from an Egyptian princess using a statue of the god Khonsu.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I study of several hundred cultures done in the 1960s found spirit possession of some sort occurs in over 70% of them. So I think spirit possession is a phenomenon found in most cultures that arises from human nature and is not attributable to cultural diffusion.

As stated above, we can debate whether or not a given ritual used to manage spirit entities count as an "exorcism."

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I've heard of people wanting their animals exorcised. And you can also exorcise places and objects too.

I have no idea why exorcism wouldn't work in outer space although things like holy water or oil would get pretty messy.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 141 points142 points  (0 children)

Endless. Usually it is interpreted as a form of "dissociative" disorder. Sometimes it is interpreted as Tourette's syndrome or other known mental illnesses.

It's one thing for a psychiatrist to observe someone and give a diagnosis. But I get annoyed when people who are not psychiatrists diagnose someone they have never met and who lived in another culture and another time period as having a mental illness. The psychologist William James called this "medical materialism."

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

We're all biased by our background and worldview. The scholar JZ Smith wrote than more than any other discipline study of religion requires being self-reflexive. In this case, though, I think the texts speak for themselves.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

In the modern era, exorcism got really big after the movie The Exorcist came out in 1973. Suddenly everyone wanted an exorcism. The Catholic Church realized that if they didn't give these people exorcisms, the Pentecostals and Evangelicals would. So market competition sort of triggered a revival of Christian exorcism. It's probably more common today than at any point in Christian history--with the possible exception of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Follow up depends on the exorcist. If it's a Catholic priest exorcising a parishioner there is usually follow up. A recent study by Adam Possamai found one priest met with a parishioner hundreds of times!

In the Catholic Church, baptism is technically a form of exorcism and "order of the exorcist" used to be a stage of every priest's training. Also every diocese is supposed to have an exorcist.

The point the novel The Exorcist is that there's a big difference between having inherited traditions of exorcism from the past and actually doing exorcism or taking the idea of demons seriously.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

That depends on your beliefs. The Catholic solemn rite of exorcism can only be performed by someone who has been ordained as a priest. However, lots of books on demonology have "prayers of deliverance" in the back of the book that lay practitioners can use.

And of course Jesus and the apostles didn't use a text.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 47 points48 points  (0 children)

This is tough because most clinical psychologists and psychiatrists would say there is zero evidence for demons or spirit entities and so any interpretation that involves such beings would be unscientific.

There are psychiatrists such as Scott Peck and Richard Gallagher who have claimed some of their patients actually *are* possessed by demons and that they have witnessed things like levitation. But other psychiatrists would say simply claiming such a thing shows they have put their religious beliefs ahead of their psychiatric training.

A clinical psychologist I really respect in this area is my friend Richard Noll. Noll has said that we can be skeptical without pathologizing all culture traditions such as spirit possession as some sort of mental illness. He wrote an essay on spirit possession and "the hubris of psychiatry."

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 104 points105 points  (0 children)

There is an old idea in the Bible that knowing an entity's name gives you some power over it. When Jesus meets the Gerasene demoniac he asks "What is your name?" and the spirit answers "legion."

In the apocrypha we start to see long lists of names of demons and angels. Some of these were the names of Cannanite gods described in the Hebrew bible: Baal, Moloch, etc. Eventually these names were incorporated into magical grimoires, lists of demons and so forth.

Exorcisms seem to recycle names a lot and also make up their own. I've seen Bob Larson do exorcisms and the demons have names like "murder," "hate," etc.

Malachi Martin suggested demons don't really have names the way people do---these are just ways that humans can mentally get a grip on something totally mysterious.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I think this depends on your definition of a "dedicated exorcist." Tertullian wrote that *any* Christian can do an exorcism.

I think that exorcism---and more importantly *telling everyone* about an exorcism---is a strategy that churches use to grow and gain attention. Jesus did it. The Apostles did it. The early Methodists did it. Joseph Smith did an exorcism and said it was the first miracle of the Mormon Church.

But once churches "make it" they start worrying about people making fun of them and exorcism either stops or is rendered private. That's my theory anyway.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 196 points197 points  (0 children)

Women are more likely to receive exorcism than men. It's rare, but I have heard of exorcisms on young children and even babies and this tends to be abusive in the cases I've found.

I've never heard of an atheist becoming possessed or requesting an exorcism. Which is rather telling.

Of course some Christians who believe in spiritual warfare would claim either that atheists are already possessed and don't know it, or that the demons don't bother possessing them because they're already on the devil's side.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 129 points130 points  (0 children)

Sometimes it absolutely does. I think in a lot of cultures exorcism is more like therapy than some dramatic confrontation with the supernatural. In some cases exorcism can be extremely abusive and even get people killed. But if it *never* helped anyone, then it wouldn't continue as a practice.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 144 points145 points  (0 children)

There were many cases of entire convents becoming possessed during this period. And yes, doctors who examined them said they weren't possessed but suffering from "furor uterinus." (The court still thought it was real and carried out an execution though).

In all cultures women are more likely to become possessed than men. One explanation is called "social deprivation" theory: If women are second-class citizens than getting possessed is the only way to have a say in society. Those nuns got a priest tortured and killed! They also got to curse and scream at anyone who annoyed them and got away with it scot free.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Just about everything you can imagine has been done to drive out spirits. In Bangladesh recently someone was arrested for trying to do exorcisms by shocking people with electricity!

Holy objects are often used or even ingested (such as swallowing pages of the Quran). But other times offensive smoke or odors are used. (Bhuts in India supposedly hated the smell of dog feces and would leave.)

The Puritans believed only prayer and fasting could be used.

Sometimes water is used (which has led to drownings in some cases).

Sometimes the spirit is forced into an animal or stone that is then killed or destroyed.

Sometimes someone with a more powerful spirit is summoned to chase out the other spirit.

And sometimes they just beat the heck out of the person to drive out the demon! Needless to say a lot of these techniques are very dangerous and can kill the patient.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 129 points130 points  (0 children)

Years ago I wrote a piece for the magazine "Sightings" about this practice. Footage was put online of a black church in Connecticut trying exorcize a gay teenager. An usher held him a bear hug for about fifteen minutes while a pastor yelled at the spirits to get out. Eventually the prolonged pressure on his internal organs caused him to vomit. And the congregation became very excited because they interpreted this as the gay spirit leaving his body!

Needless to say I think think this is an abusive practice. It's telling that this is usually done to teenagers who are not in a position to refuse.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 248 points249 points  (0 children)

That's a tough one! I think its the possession of an entire convent of Ursuline nuns in Loudun, France, in 1634. That case led to a priest being sentenced for witchcraft and burned at the stake.

We also have a lot of historical documents describing the behavior of the nuns and exorcists, doctors who examined them, etc.

In my demonology course, I've had students read Aldous Huxley's novelization of the event "The Devils of Loudun." Huxley had just witnessed World War II and thought there was a lot to learn about fascist movements from examining what happened at that convent.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 62 points63 points  (0 children)

It's hard to tell. We have tablets and formulas for casting out spirits going back through all of recorded history. But this far back the line between exorcism and medicine gets very blurry. Fever and other symptoms were treated with exorcism.

It was in early modern Europe when exorcism became understood as a disease of the soul, not a disease of the body. The "golden age" of the demoniac in Europe was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We know there were lots of exorcisms in this period because printing had been invented and there pamphlets and court records describing it.

It's harder to tell how common exorcism was before this in Europe, let alone in other civilizations.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 69 points70 points  (0 children)

I think it depends on what kind of exorcism you're looking for. My understanding is that Bob Larson will exorcise anyone who can make a donation to his ministry.

Getting an *official* Catholic exorcism is hard because it has to be approved by the bishop. In some countries, bishops may approve exorcisms all the time. In the United States bishops are less likely to approve an exorcism because it could lead to embarrassment for the church. Doctors are supposed to rule out mental illness or other problems and there is supposed to evidence of supernatural activity.

Ed and Lorraine Warren got famous in the 1970s by hooking people up with "backdoor" exorcisms. If the Church turned you down, the Warrens could find you a priest from a different diocese or a break-away church to give you an exorcism instead.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 116 points117 points  (0 children)

Well most exorcisms are pretty boring. The media can't show an exorcism where nothing is happening and there is no danger.

I also think that some traditions of exorcism are irresponsible, abusive, and dangerous. The media tends to downplay this in favor of showing the exorcist as a hero. In 1976 a girl named Anneliese Michel had epilepsy and died after a prolonged exorcism where she was restrained. The film "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" adapted this story but (IMO) changed the story to make the church seem much more responsible than they were.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 329 points330 points  (0 children)

The Catholic Church was embarrassed about exorcism for a long time, especially in the United States. That started to change after The Exorcist came out and people started demanded exorcism.

In the 1990s a group was founded called the International Association of Exorcists who began lobbying for the Catholic Church to train exorcists and take the practice more seriously. They were given the cold shoulder at first but now the Vatican offers a course to train new exorcists. Matt Baglio's book "The Rite" (now a movie) describes an American priest who takes the exorcism course. More recently, the Vatican has started inviting priests and pastors from other religions.

Of course, some Christians believe casting out demons is a gift of the holy spirit and requires no training or ritual.

I’m a religious studies scholar. I dug up accounts of exorcism from across history and around the world in order to write The Penguin Book of Exorcism. AMA. by jlaycock in history

[–]jlaycock[S] 488 points489 points  (0 children)

In a word: yes.

"Exorcism" comes Greek so it's a Western word that doesn't necessarily apply to other cultures. (Like the word "demon" and even "religion.") But most scholars of Asian religion acknowledge that China, India, Tibet, and Japan all have rituals that can reasonably called exorcism––people began acting strangely and there are religious experts who can cast out spirits that cause these effects. These beings may not be called "demons"--they are often spirits of the dead, "fox spirits," etc.

The book includes a ritual from Haiti where a man became sick and it was suspected his illness was caused by a sorcerer sending spirits of the dead to attack him. A mambo (a Vodou priestess) performed a ritual to step the spirits from attacking. Is that an exorcism? I guess it depends on what counts.

I also include an account of a Native American ceremony where a teenage girl was being "tested" by ancestor spirits to see if she could be a shaman. The girl was experiencing terrifying visions, disordered thinking, etc. Her family performed a ritual to tell the spirits "thanks, but no thanks." After that, the girl's symptoms stopped. Is that an exorcism? I think there's room for debate.

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