Manmade Monstrosity

psychicworld:

An Exorcism is the process by which an evil spirit or possesing entity is driven out of a human host, object or place. From the Greek exorkizein meaning ‘to bind by oath’ (invoking a higher power to make a spirit act in a certain way), rituals of exorcism exist universally in societies where spirits are thought to interfere with earthly affairs and cause misfortune.

Typically exorcisms are performed by trained induviduals, usually officials or magical or occult adepts. Rites vary from simple requests to leave to complex rituals involving trance and techniques including fasting, prayer, sacred herbs and blessed water.

In Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam possessing spirits are blamed for a number of misfortunes and are cast out of people and places, but unlike in Christianity, such conflicts are not considered battles for the persons soul. Typical Hindu exorcism techniques include offering coper coins, candy or other gifts and pressing rock salt between the fingers. In some Shamanic traditions it is thought that possessing spirits can steal souls, and the shaman enters a trance to search for the soul and force the evil spirit out. Jewish rabbinic literature refers to exorcisms. The best known rite concerns that of the dybbuk.

Christianity associates exorcism with demonic possession. The Roman Catholic Church offers a formal rite of exorcism, the Ritual Romanum, dating back to 1614. In order to ‘qualify’ for an exorcism the victim must display certain symptoms including super human strength, levitation and speaking in tongues (glossolalia). Some Protestants also perform exorcism. Pentecostalists practice ‘deliverance ministry’, where healers drive out evil spirits by the laying on of hands.

A more modertate view on exorcism and possession was put forward by American psychologist Carl Wickland, who believed that spirits were not evil but simply confused and trying to finish their worldly business in a living person. This could cause any number of mental problems. Wickland recommended using mild electric shock to help the spirits leave in his controversial book Thirty Years Among The Dead (1924). This view still has a number of supporters, among them psychiatrist Dr Ralph Allison, who wrote in his book, Minds In Many Pieces (1980), that various of his patients exhibited signs of demonic possession and required exorcism as well as conventional treatment.

In Christianity there are no formal exorcism rites for banishing ghosts from places. There are, however, plenty of superstitions and magical rites, and these include entering a house at midnight with a candle, compass, crucifix and Bible and drawing magical circles and crosses. In China ghosts are exorcised from houses by Taoist priests in a complex ritual, involving a mystic scroll placed on an altar, a cup and a sword and mystical signs, repeated to all four corners of the room.