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All rights reserved. Powered by: Safari Books Online. When a person is demonically possessed, he or she suffers from a complete seizure of their personality by a diabolical being. This allows the demon to dominate their person allowing them to become, even somewhat physically, that demonic being. As seen in discussion of exorcism, "there are two ways to become possessed by the Devil: either the Devil passes directly into a person, or someone, usually said to be a witch or wizard, working with the Devil sends a demon into a victim through bewitchment Guiley Large scale recent research in Low and Middle Income Countries LMIC has shown that people with a history of childhood abuse or severe trauma are particularly vulnerable Hecker et al, as are those who dabble in occult practices e.
Ouija boards, cultic groups, etc. Psychiatric and spiritual conditions may overlap, and each requires accurate diagnosis in order to tailor treatment and avoid the potentially dangerous consequences misdiagnosis can lead to.
In contrast to spiritual afflictions, psychiatric disorders are diagnosed by medical professionals who use a specific set of criteria to do so. For example, in the case of dissociative identity disorder DID formerly known as multiple personality disorder, dissociative symptoms e. The potential for confusion between spirit possession and dissociative states is high because in DID one or more alternative personalities may take over the behaviour of the patient. Other overlapping symptoms include prolonged memory gaps and hallucinations, and both often present with a history of complex childhood trauma.
There is a similar potential for confusion with schizophrenia, where delusions and paranoid hallucinations are also common. A misdiagnosis can have dire social stigma and emotional consequences for the victim and their loved ones. Both pastoral and medical professionals are relied upon to carefully evaluate, diagnose, and direct treatment to the most appropriate provider.
Regardless of their own personal beliefs, a provider must take each consultation seriously, keeping in mind the deep degree of real suffering these conditions represent for those afflicted. Having reviewed the available medical data and spiritual literature, Dr Illueca recommends a four-step approach to the assessment and management of spiritual distress for people who believe the cause to be the influence of evil spirits. The first step is awareness; of the reality of spiritual distress, and the spectrum of manifestations.
The second step is anticipation; of the likelihood that a care-seeker may fall on the spiritual possession spectrum based on their presentation symptoms, background, life history.
The third step is critical assessment of the clinical evidence, noting whether symptoms may indicate a psychological condition. The final step is referral, based on the assessment, to the most appropriate service.
Summary The work of Dr Illueca collates the current literature and academic research on spirit possession and highlights the need for careful differential diagnosis between psychiatric cases, and demonic possession.
She emphasises the importance of empathy, care, and faithful perseverance across the four steps she recommends, in helping restore the affected person to wellness. It is hoped they will serve as useful guidance for practitioners faced with discerning the nature of spiritual maladies presented to them. The paper ends with a call for further research on deliverance ministries, and diagnostic approaches to spiritual afflictions with the aim of improving the lives of the suffering and those caring for them.
Do you encounter conflict between your medical training and your theological investigation, particularly relating to this area? Rather than conflict, what an inspirational challenge, engaging in conversation between my medical training and theological investigation. With my lifelong medical experience, I am blessed to witness new unprecedented scientific insight into the previously unexplored areas of spirituality and health. For instance, the new empirical evidence emerging from neuroimaging research e.
Gallagher helped assemble an exorcism team that met Julia in the chapel of a house. Objects would fly off shelves around her. She somehow knew personal details about Gallagher's life: how his mother had died of ovarian cancer; the fact that two cats in his house went berserk fighting each other the night before one of her sessions.
Julia found a way to reach him even when she wasn't with him, he says. He was talking on the phone with Julia's priest one night, he says, when both men heard one of the demonic voices that came from Julia during her trances -- even though she was nowhere near a phone and thousands of miles away. He says he was never afraid. How a scientist believes in demons. He also insists that he's on the side of science.
He says he's a stickler for the scientific method, that it teaches people to follow the facts wherever they may lead. Growing up in a large Irish Catholic family in Long Island, he didn't think much about stories of possession. But when he kept seeing cases like Julia's as a professional, he says, his views had to evolve. Some priests say those who dabble in the occult are opening doorways to the demonic. Being Catholic, though, may help.
Gallagher grew up in a home where faith was taken seriously. His younger brother, Mark, says Gallagher was an academic prodigy with a photographic memory who wanted to use his faith to help people. He taught us to give back. Gallagher's two ways of giving back -- helping the mentally ill as well as the possessed -- may seem at odds. But not necessarily for those in the Catholic Church.
Contemporary Catholicism doesn't see faith and science as contradictory. Its leaders insist that possession, miracles and angels exist. But global warming is real, so is evolution, and miracles must be documented with scientific rigor. More from 'The Other Side'. The Pope writes that "there can never be a true divergence between faith and reason, since the same God who reveals the mysteries and bestows the gift of faith has also placed in the human spirit the light of reason.
The church's emphasis on faith and reason can even been seen in the birth of its exorcism ritual. The Rite of Exorcism was first published in by Pope Paul V to quell a trend of laypeople and priests hastily performing exorcisms on people they presumed were possessed, such as victims of the bubonic plague, says the Rev.
It said the exorcist should not have anything to do with medicine. Leave that to the doctors. Learn about the true story that inspired the movie "The Exorcist".
Doctors, perhaps, like Gallagher. Gallagher says the concept of possession by spirit isn't limited to Catholicism. Muslim, Jewish and other Christian traditions regard possession by spirits -- holy or benign -- as possible. Mark Albanese is among them. A friend of Gallagher's, Albanese studied medicine at Cornell and has been practicing psychiatry for decades.
In a letter to the New Oxford Review, a Catholic magazine, he defended Gallagher's belief in possession. He also says there is a growing belief among health professionals that a patient's spiritual dimension should be accounted for in treatment, whether their provider agrees with those beliefs or not. Some psychiatrists have even talked of adding a "trance and possession disorder" diagnosis to the DSM, the premier diagnostic manual of disorders used by mental health professionals in the US.
There's still so much about the human mind that psychiatrists don't know, Albanese says. Doctors used to be widely skeptical of people who claimed to suffer from multiple personalities, but now it's a legitimate disorder dissociative identity disorder.
Many are still dumbfounded by the power of placebos, a harmless pill or medical procedure that produces healing in some cases. Jeffrey Lieberman, a psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia, arrived at a similar conclusion after he had an unnerving experience with a patient.
Lieberman was asked to examine the videotape of an exorcism that he subsequently dismissed as unconvincing. Then he met a woman who, he said, "freaked me out. Lieberman, director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, says he and a family therapist were asked to examine a young woman who some thought was possessed. He and his colleague tried to treat the woman for several months but gave up because they had no success.
The film "The Rite" is based on the life of the Rev. Gary Thomas, one of the leading exorcists in the US.
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