chapter 5, possession and exorcism

Question 1

difference between psychotherapy and analysis

Answer 1

o Use of power between therapy and exorcism is radically different
o Therapy makes little or no use whatsoever of power
o Conducted in an atmosphere of total freedom, free to quit therapy anytime
o The therapist, expect for saying they will never see the patient again which is constructive, has no weapons to push for change beyond persuasive power of his or her own wits, understanding and love
o In exorcism, the healer calls upon every power that is available to battle against the patient’s sickness
o Exorcism always conducted with three or more, the team “gangs up” on the patient
o The length of an exorcism session is not pre-set but is at the discretion of the team leader
o In normal therapy, the session is an hour long and the patient knows this
o This gives no room toe evade help because it is easy to evade for an hour but not for possibly 12 hours.
o In addition, the patient is also restrained so they cannot walk out like Charlene did
o Most important, the exorcism team invokes the power of God in the healing process
o As far as the Christian exorcist is concerned, it is not he or she who successfully completes the process, it is God. The whole purpose of prayer is to bring the power of God.

Question 2

explain exorcim

Answer 2

• Exorcism is seen by its practitioners in terms of spiritual warfare
• The exorcist believes it is legitimate to use any and every loving means, to ask for any loving help and use any loving resource available
• The key word is “loving” as it not only condones but insists the use of power
• Power is always a subject of misuse, but the simple fact of its potential danger is hardly a reason to outlaw it
• One issue to be considered in relation to the use of power in exorcism is that of brainwashing
• Exorcism is a form of brainwashing
• One patient felt after their exorcism and feeling of relived, profoundly grateful and rape. Eventually the feeling of rape faded and the other feelings increased.
• What prevents it from being true rape is the patient consents to the procedure
• One safeguard against the misuse of power is to bear in mind the extreme importance of this issue of consent
• Peck believes informed consent should be apart of exorcism in order to avoid the misuse of power
• Another safeguards such as an objective record should be kept which can be made public if the patient or guardian wants.
• The greatest safeguard is love, only with love can exorcists discern between interventions that are “fair” and necessary and those that are manipulative or truly violating. Love is the only thing that can heal
• Exorcism is not a magical restriction, as in therapy, it makes an analysis of a patient then seeks to help
• Should only be used in cases so severe that lesser varieties of psychotherapy fail
• It should be regarded as an experimental procedure until proven
• The whole purpose of exorcism is to uncover and isolate the demon so it can be expelled
• Exorcism can be dangerous if the person does not want to get rid of the demon or its to strong in which case it could be fatal
• There are both physical and psychological risks to the exorcists
• From the two cases, Peck state that possession is no accident
• Possession appears to be a gradual process un which the possessed person sells out for one reason or another multiple times
• The primary both these patients sold out seemed to be loneliness, each as lonely and adopted the demonic as an imaginary companion
• Possession can sometimes create a fixation at the age on its onset, in which the patient believes they are still the age they were possessed at
• Exorcism is a process that occurs even before the patient sees the exorcist
• Starts when the patient decides to fight back (same as therapy)
• All cases of what we call possession should be referred as “partial possession” or “imperfect possession”
• Not easy to diagnose those who have been possessed, they often show mental illness and get mislabelled however the line between mental illness and possession is the same
• The proper question is “is the patient just mentally ill or is he or she mentally ill and possessed?”
• In both of Peck’s cases, the major distinction in diagnosis was between possession and multiple personality disorder.
• In multiple personality disorder, the “core personality” is virtually always unaware of the existence of the secondary personalities- until the end of the treatment
• In possession, both patients were either aware from the beginning or made aware of the destructive, alien personality
• Second difference is the second personality in multiple personality disorder has never been frankly evil
• Deliverance: a sort of “mini exorcism” frequently conducted over the past two decades by charismatic Christians to treat people suffering from “oppression”
• In exorcism, the person is not evil but the secondary personality is
• Pretense: the first and usually longest stage of an exorcism, the demonic hides within and behind the person
• For exorcism to occur, demonic must be uncovered and brought to the surface
• One risk of exorcism is that it is impossible to go into the exorcism proper with total certainty, often, it is only through evaluating slowly and painstakingly up to the point where the diagnosis was 95% certain
• Most of what happened in the exorcism Peck says can be explained with psychology, however, there is a small amount he is left with what Martin called the “Presence”
• The critical moment is what Martin calls the “expulsion”, time where the exorcists do the least as God does the expulsion
• God cannot heal who doesn’t want to be healed, therefore the patient is partially the exorcist
• Satan does not let go easily, tells the patient that it is still around and even inside of them, torments the patient
• In these cases, where both patients were lonely, the team gave them their first sense of love and community
• Exorcism not only healing for the patient, but also the team
• Much resistance to study, usually only studied as “over there” or away from us
• Only loving individuals can be in an exorcism, or else it could cause harm to themselves or others
• God never uses power against us or even Satan, he chooses to use his power to create rather than destroy
• In contrast to the Holocaust many people ask how a loving god could let this happen. The answer is God has forsaken force and therefore can only continue to grieve with us
• Must understand that Satan is a spirit, can manifest itself in material things but it itself is not material
• Satan has no power unless in human bodies, Satan’s threats are always empty, the only power that Satan has is through human belief
• Satan’s intelligence is afflicted with two other blind spots: the virtue of of its extreme self-centeredness, it has no real understanding of love and science as it is an ant narcissistic phenomenon
• Believes we should fear Satan but like all evil things it should be pitted
• Peck hypothesizes that truly evil people are “fully possessed”