Priests talk about ''The Exorcist''
Bryon Rivers
Eagloe-Tribune Writer
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, an "exorcism" is "the act of driving out or warding off demons or evil spirits from persons, places or things which are believed to be possessed or infested by them."
Last weekend, the 1973 movie "The Exorcist," digitally remastered and fresh with approximately 11 minutes of new footage, was brought back to the big screen, giving horror-movie fans the opportunity to witness the ritual in larger-than-life fashion.
But while the movie struck a chord with critics and fear in the hearts of viewers 27 years ago -- with its depictions of a young girl levitating, projectile vomiting, and doing other freakish things while her body, mind and soul were under the control of dark forces -- is it still something that should scare us?
More pertinently, is the theme of the movie, actual demon possession of a human being, even valid in the year 2000?
"Certainly," said the Rev. John W. Gentleman, a priest at Holy Family Church in Amesbury. "There obviously is some factual basis in it. ... Evil is a reality in our world."
Rev. Gentleman is not alone in his thinking.
In January of 1999, the Vatican, concerned with Satan's growing influence in the world, updated the language and portions of the exorcism ritual, including new warnings against mistaking psychiatric illness for demonic possession. These were the first changes to the rite in nearly 400 years.
According to an article from Catholic News Service, dated Jan. 26, 1999:
"The book said that some signs that a person may be possessed -- when all medical explanations have been ruled out -- include: 'speaking in unknown languages, revealing things that are far away or hidden (or) demonstrating a physical strength not conforming to one's age or health status.' At the same time, it cautioned that 'these signs are only an indication' and may not be the work of the devil."
A Sept. 11, 2000, story from Catholic News Service described an incident in which the Pope himself, just weeks ago, prayed over a woman who "flew into a possessed rage" in The Vatican's St. Peter's Square.
Rome's exorcist, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth, was quoted in the article as saying, "She began screaming incomprehensibly and speaking in a 'cavernous voice.'" The woman, "a 19-year-old with a history of possession," was not affected by the Pope's prayers.
"Demon possession is very serious and graphic thing," said the Rev. David Keene, parochial vicar at St. Monica in Methuen. "'The Exorcist' portrays its ugly reality."
Rev. Keene said he remembers being scared by "The Exorcist" when, in his early teens, he saw it on video for the first time, but said while it was "vulgar and disgusting in places ... it doesn't cast the church in negative way."
"In positive light, it awakens us to the power of evil and the power of Christ when the demon is cast out," he said.
Rev. Keene also pointed out that demon possession and exorcism have biblical backing. New Testament passages in which Jesus cast out demons from the possessed include Matthew 12, Luke 8 and 11, and Mark 3.
"There is clear evidence in the Gospels of demon possession," he said. "If people want a description, there is a scriptural basis."
Described in the Jan. 26 Catholic News Service article, the exorcism ritual itself is "directed at the expulsion of demons or to the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority, which Jesus entrusted to his church." The story goes on to describe, in brief, the process of exorcism: "In the ritual, the evil spirit is commanded in the name of God and of the church to depart. The ritual also includes a sprinkling with holy water, the recitation of a litany of the saints, the Lord's Prayer and a creed, a Gospel reading and the Sign of the Cross."
Although exorcism was once part of all priests' ordinations, these days, only a select few have the authority to perform one. A bishop must appoint the exorcist himself. According to Rev. Keene, exorcists' identities are not made public to protect "the privacy of the persons involved."
He said he doesn't even know the identity of the exorcist for the Archdiocese of Boston.
"If there was a case (of possession) that I came upon, I would turn it over to the diocese," said Rev. Keene. "If an exorcist was needed, he would go in and do it, but ... an exorcism isn't something that should be given over to public spectacle. It's an intensely personal encounter with evil, God, and the healing power of the church."
In regards to that "healing power," Rev. Keene said, one of the things about the film that he likes is that "two of the priests lay down their lives for the sake of the child. Although a bit dramatic, it does point out the charity of the priests, and to me, that's a positive thing."
But even with its "positive" points, "The Exorcist"' still brings all kinds of nightmares to mind. Should we be afraid?
"I don't think so," said Rev. Gentleman. "As faithful people, we believe that the power of God will conquer all things, including evil, and God's justice will eventually win out."
And was issued on: Saturday, September 30, 2000
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Click HERE to see a Movie Poster of the Exorcist.
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Editorial Review on movie "The Exorcist":
Director William Friedkin was a hot ticket in Hollywood after the success of The French Connection, and he turned heads (in more ways than one) when he decided to make The Exorcist as his follow-up film. Adapted by William Peter Blatty from his controversial bestseller, this shocking 1973 thriller set an intense and often-copied milestone for screen terror with its unflinching depiction of a young girl (Linda Blair) who is possessed by an evil spirit. Jason Miller and Max von Sydow are perfectly cast as the priests who risk their sanity and their lives to administer the rites of demonic exorcism, and Ellen Burstyn plays Blair's mother, who can only stand by in horror as her daughter's body is wracked by satanic disfiguration. One of the most frightening films ever made, The Exorcist was mysteriously plagued by troubles during production, and the years have not diminished its capacity to disturb even the most stoical viewers. The film is presented in letterbox format on digital video disc, with a soundtrack that's guaranteed to curdle your blood. Don't say you weren't warned! --Jeff Shannon
SOURCE: Diario El Tribuno de Salta (Argentina)
DATE: April 15, 2003
TWO PRIESTS WITNESS PARANORMAL PHENOMENON
A 20 year old woman who was brought to the ER at San Bernardo Hospital on Sunday evening was at the center of hard-to-explain events. Her family alleged she was "demon possessed" while doctors diagnosed a "conversive nervous breakdown."
The young woman showed no physical symptoms, but after two priests visited her (one of whom suffered a nervous crisis) she appeared to return to normal. The various sources consulted yesterday by El Tribuno confirmed the story confidentially. According to the account, the young woman was brought in with violent psychiatric conditions. "Her speech was unintelligible, she waved her hands in the air, wanted to destroy it all, and had incredible strength. Several people were unable to control her to tie her down to the bed." It was a case similar to many that the emergency room personnel have to deal with, particularly on weekends when inebriated or drugged patients are involved. But this case was more intense and somewhat different.
All of the tests performed, including an emergency CAT scan, detected nothing abnormal. The physicians pronounced her "neurologically sound. No somatic basis." It was for this reason that two Catholic priests from the Church of the Holy Cross were allowed to visit, led there by the family. "There was a ceremony accompanied by prayers. Suddenly one of the priests began to tremble and complain of intense pain, vomiting profusely. We then realized that the girl became miraculously tranquil, normal, as though nothing had ever happened."
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Translation (C) 2003. Institute of Hispanic Ufology. Special thanks to Gloria Coluchi.
Hilary Mantel: The exorcist
Hilary Mantel survived the devil of a girlhood and had to wrestle with serious illness. Now, as she tells Marianne Brace, the novelist has written a memoir to banish the demons.
10 May 2003
When Hilary Mantel was seven, she met the devil. Well, not exactly: but she did encounter something so evil that even now she finds it hard to explain what she chanced on in the garden. "I couldn't say I saw it," she says slowly. "I'm talking about something at the very border of sensory experience. I could walk to where it was, could say how high it was and describe the speed at which it moved. But how I got the information, through which sense, I don't know." What Mantel does know is that she felt she had witnessed something she wasn't meant to. "The experience was absolutely destroying, as if my body was falling apart at a cellular level, which expressed itself in intense nausea. The way I rationalised it was that it was the devil. As a Catholic, that was the theology I had at my command." The family home itself was haunted and this presence seemed like "a concentration of things that were going on in the house the unhappiness of our family and the pressure of secrets and lies".
Evil makes itself felt in several of Mantel's works, from child abduction in Africa to murderous goings-on in a flat in Jeddah. And malevolence is not always far from home. In the story "Third Floor Rising", from her collection Learning to Talk, screams issue from an empty bricked-up department store. Mantel understands how the inexplicable disturbs and spooks us.
Now she is laying to rest a few demons of her own in the memoir Giving Up The Ghost (Fourth Estate, £16.99), and in Learning to Talk a series of fictionalised out-takes from the memoir. "My childhood seemed very much haunted," she explains, "so I've tried to get a sense of that without doing the headless horseman and the rattling chains."
As a writer, Mantel always achieves a topical resonance. Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (1988) considers the implications of creeping Muslim fundamentalism. A Change of Climate (1994) involves "medicine murder". (Ten years ago, who could have foreseen the recent disposal of "Adam's" torso in the Thames?). The Giant O'Brien, with its freak-show character, poses questions about medical ethics and what it means to be human, while the marvellous epic A Place of Greater Safety charts the free-fall and chaos of the French Revolution. "I don't want to talk about Iraq," says Mantel, "but I keep thinking about what Robespierre said: 'Who likes armed missionaries?'"
In turning to memoir, Mantel joins a host of writers who have used the absence of a parent to question their own identity. Mantel's father vanished when she was young. But her story is not just a daddy-I-hardly-knew-you. Constant illness from the age of 19 meant that at times she hardly knew herself, as a result of the cocktail of drugs on which she has been forced to rely.
As a child, Mantel often missed school through illness. "Because of my absences I was squeezed into an observer's role." A large vocabulary also set her apart. "I didn't know that you didn't use all the words at your command," she says, smiling. "So I retreated into being virtually dumb and hardly uttered during the rest of my primary education." That all changed at grammar school, where she became head girl. "School saved my sanity. It was an oasis of civilisation and calm."
Mantel is the oldest of three children. Her mother, who went to work in a mill at 14, was ambitious for her daughter to excel academically. This wasn't the only pressure. Mantel's parents had taken in a lodger. "By the time I was 10, Jack was more of a power in the household and my father became marginalised, living in the house like a ghost." Her mother couldn't get divorced and later, everyone had to keep up the pretence that she was married to Jack. When Mantel's father finally left, they never saw him again. Does that sadden her? "In the scale of what's given grief it comes surprisingly low down," she says. "But I am what I am because of him. The quiet habits of the introvert were nourished by him."
The first person in her family to go to university, Mantel found herself having to beg for money, much like Carmel in her girls-of-slender-means semi-autobiographical novel, An Experiment in Love. Jack, now her stepfather, refused to support her financially. When Mantel wanted to marry, her parents cut her off. "If I hadn't married I would have had to leave university. It was a difficult situation and one where every choice was a bad one."
Married, Mantel spent several years teaching abroad, exposed to "the grievous things that Africa does to the European psyche." The expat experience led her to conclude "the world is profoundly other". She soon realised that some things simply couldn't be communicated. "Botswana was so remote and cut off. How can you talk to people back home who are still stuck in the same perceptions? The gap is too great."
Her health, meanwhile, was deteriorating. Misdiagnosis had led to Mantel being fobbed off with anti-depressive drugs. By the time doctors discovered the she was suffering from endometriosis she was 27 and her condition so advanced that her reproductive organs had to be removed. At this time, too, she submitted a 350,000-word manuscript she had been working on. It was A Place of Greater Safety, and it was rejected.
"I'm not even sure it was read," says Mantel, who explains how on its return a chunk was missing. "The rejection of the book and the end of my fertility seemed of a piece. It seemed terribly symbolic, part of the numb misery ... So I just went back and started life again." (When the novel was published in 1992, it won a major prize.)
The knowledge that she would never have children is something Mantel discusses in Giving Up The Ghost with an admirable lack of self-pity. Indeed, the whole memoir is written with a deft, wry touch. "What you're confronted with in memoir is unmitigated self," Mantel says. In order to be unselfconscious she focused on the sensory, to recover "the texture of the day, the light, the sounds. I can only do any sort of writing by seeding my intellect elsewhere. You do a lot of planning beforehand but when you sit down at the keyboard, it's not the time for thinking but just doing. It's when you get to the end you think, 'Oh, what have I done?'"
Mantel describes herself as "a creature of pharmaceuticals", compelled to be a non-participant. "I don't think I would have been a writer if I hadn't been ill," she muses. "Illness forces you to the wall, so the stance of the writer is forced on you. Writing keeps you still and as long as your brain is working it doesn't matter if your body isn't." When Mantel's thyroid failed, however, she couldn't even take that for granted. "My body and mind started to come to a halt. I would put in frustrating hours, trying to limp to the end of a paragraph and wondering why it didn't work. So now I think, what next? What other tricks does my body have up its sleeve?"
One of the more distressing tricks was an alarming weight-gain. "When this incredible extending woman thing started, I increased my weight by 50 per cent ... I just couldn't get into last week's clothes. It was as if God was teaching me to be humble."
Over the years, Mantel has observed, "how ignorable you become when you're fat like a piece of furniture". She continues, "Catholics say that the sacraments are the outward sign of inward grace. Well, I have the outward sign of inward disgrace. I'm like a comic book version of myself." She laughs. "My body is intent on telling the story, so my mind had better go along with it and write the memoir."
Mantel has exorcised some ghosts, but isn't giving up yet. She is working on her ninth novel and recently judged the Granta Best of Young British Novelists selection. "I do have a sense of an era being over," she says. "Whether you're writing fiction or memoir, you come to a certain understanding by the end of it. I feel I have cast some light on my background and still there is so much that is untold."
Biography
Born in Derbyshire in 1952 and educated in Cheshire, Hilary Mantel read law at the LSE. Married at 20, she finished her degree at Sheffield University. She tried social work, then sold frocks in order to write in the evenings. She lived in Africa in the late Seventies. In 1982 she remarried her husband and his job took them to Saudi Arabia. Her first published novel was Every Day is Mother's Day. She won the Hawthornden Prize for An Experiment in Love, and the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for travel writing. Her other novels include Fludd, The Giant O'Brien and A Place of Greater Safety. A memoir, Giving Up The Ghost, and the short stories Learning To Talk (out in July), are published by Fourth Estate. Hilary Mantel lives with her husband in a flat in a converted lunatic asylum.
Confusion as Climbié church cleared over exorcisms
Tash Shifrin
Friday May 9, 2003
A religious charity cited in the Victoria Climbié murder inquiry has been cleared by an official investigation of potentially misleading the public by offering exorcism services and cures for cancer.
The charity commission today said that it found no evidence that the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) claimed to be able to heal individuals or purge them of demons.
Despite the charity regulator's ruling the churches' website was today advertising "strong prayer to destroy witchcraft, demon-possession" - an apparent reference to exorcism.
The commission investigated the church under its remit to protect the integrity of charities, in particular concerns that the charities' reputation might be adversely affected by any misleading claims that individuals could cure cancer, and perform miracles or exorcisms.
The commission inquiry was sparked by press interest in the UCKG, where Victoria was taken for exorcism by her great-aunt, Marie Therese Kouao, in February 2000. Kouao was found guilty of her murder in January 2001.
The commission's investigation report, published today, said Victoria did not attend the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God regularly, but visited three times in the period immediately before her death.
It added: "The seriousness of her condition was not fully realised or reported to the relevant authorities. Those representatives of the charity who saw her initially offered her spiritual help in prayer. However, on the last occasion when she attended, her aunt was advised to take her to a doctor."
The report says investigating officers "did not find any evidence that UCKG or those representing it . . . were claiming to be able to perform miracles, heal those suffering from ailments or exorcise individuals who are allegedly possessed by demons." And they noted "a statement to the effect that UCKG does not perform miracles on its publicity material."
The investigators concluded that no further action was necessary in relation to allegations that the UCKG claimed to be able to perform miracles, "as these were unsubstantiated".
But "life-changing meetings" advertised on the charity's website yesterday included "spiritual release" gatherings on Fridays, described as "strong prayer to destroy witchcraft, demon-possession, nightmares, curses, envy, bad luck, all spiritual problems."
And on Tuesdays "miracle healing" is listed with the comment: "If you are sick, in pain, have an incurable disease, doctors cannot help, etc 'I am the Lord that healeth thee'."
A spokesperson for the commission said: "The charity, we recognise, offers prayer to help people overcome their illnesses. They don't actually claim to be able to cure cancer or ailments or do exorcisms."
But the commission has told the church - which has many child members and a facility for children of parents attending services - that it must introduce a formal child protection policy.
The investigators also looked at the relationship between UCKG and its sister churches in Brazil and Portugal, to which it has donated £900,000 and £1.36m respectively, and at payments made to two of the charity's three trustees in their capacity as pastors.
The report says the charity's trustees provided receipts and other documentation to show the fund sent to Brazil had been used to further its stated objects, although some documentation "predated the date of the donation". Documentation was also provided to support the donation of money in Portugal.
The trustees who were also being paid as pastors resigned as trustees at the charity's 2002 AGM, on the commission's advice, the report said.
Guilty pleas in 'exorcism' ritual case
May 16, 2003
LONDON, Ont. -- The three people charged with first-degree murder after a London teenager died during what is believed to have been an exorcism ritual have pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
The pleas from 19-year-old Walter Zepeda's parents and a family friend came this week during a preliminary hearing into his bizarre death early last year.
He was found dead in his family's basement apartment in London.
Witnesses said his arms and legs were tied to chairs with neckties.
An autopsy showed he died of dehydration.
The teen's father, Diego Zepeda-Cordero, 44, and fellow Missionary Church of Christ member Alex Osegueda, 42, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Zepeda's mother, Ana Mejia-Lopez, 52, pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life.
They are slated to be sentenced May 22.
"This (the lesser charges) is a good thing because it could have been a really long trial ... and with all the emotions involved, she's (Mejia-Lopez) been crying so much, sometimes in court she's inconsolable," Mejia-Lopez's lawyer, Terry Guerriero, said yesterday.
The three had pleaded not guilty.
If convicted of manslaughter, Zepeda-Cordero and Osegueda face life sentences with parole eligibility after seven years, compared to a first-degree murder sentence that would prohibit parole for 25 years.
The maximum sentence for failing to provide the necessaries of life is two years in prison.
Immediately after Zepeda's death, family friends said the trio - all members of the Spanish Pentecostal Missionary Church of Christ - were trying to use prayer rituals to heal the teen who'd been behaving strangely for months.
The church pastor, Guillermo Fabian, and other family friends said they went to the residence in the days before Zepeda died and prayed for him to be healed.
Zepeda, a quiet teen who loved basketball and worked as a dishwasher at Archie's Seafood Restaurant, had been acting out, causing his parents to believe he was possessed, his brother told The London Free Press shortly after the parents were arrested.
Epilepsy 'spirits' myth endures
May 19, 2003
A small proportion of people surveyed about epilepsy continue to believe that the condition is due to being possessed by evil spirits.
The National Society for Epilepsy carried out the survey to reveal a wider ignorance of the condition.
They found many people still do not know how to help when they see someone having a seizure.
The belief that possession is the root cause of a seizure still holds sway in small numbers of people.
The Bible does have references to the "casting out of evil spirits", describing victims whose symptoms have been interpreted as matching those of epileptics.
Nationwide, 2% of people quizzed felt that evil spirits were the cause of epilepsy - but this rose to 4% and 5% in northwest England and London respectively.
Contagious
A similar percentage believes wrongly you can catch epilepsy by touching someone who has it.
The majority of people can recognise some features of a seizure - but a quarter believed that restraining the convulsing patient was a good idea, when in fact it is not.
Another 30% thought that something should be put in the patient's mouth, ostensibly to stop him or her biting down on the tongue.
This is also incorrect advice, say experts.
The National Society for Epilepsy is targeting police forces, schools, universities and colleges with an information campaign.
Margaret Thomas, from the society, said: "There are still 1,000 epilepsy-related deaths each year and one way to reduce this is to increase awareness amongst people with the condition, the general public, and members of the emergency services.
"Police officers, in particular, need to be aware that a person with epilepsy needs to take their medication regularly in order to maintain seizure control.
"Withholding medication can be life-threatening."
Our evil spirits
May 28, 2003 13:00
An exorcist has called time on spirits at a Norfolk pub after staff claimed they had come under attack from mischievous poltergeists.
Staff at the White Horse pub in Great Yarmouth will only go down to the cellar in pairs to change barrels after one of them saw a ghostly figure there.
And the chef is so petrified of sleeping in an apparently haunted upstairs bedroom, he now spends nights on the kitchen floor armed with a rolling pin. He also claims to have been injured by a frozen steak which was hurled at him by the ghouls.
Bar staff at the 17th century, grade two listed building also claim to have witnessed pool balls moving by themselves, pint glasses flying from their shelves and ghostly apparitions running through the building.
Debbie Bee, landlady of the pub which, ironically, is number 13 Northgate Street and is next to Murderers Row in the town, is trying to sell the pub after efforts to banish the spirits failed.
She said the exorcism by Canon Michael Woods only annoyed the ghosts further.
"After the exorcism it got worse," said Miss Bee, who has run the pub since 1998.
"Things started flying around and I couldn't even sleep. I lay awake most of the night. The exorcism could even have stirred them up."
Miss Bee said the problems began about five weeks ago when she first put the pub on the market.
"I woke up one night and saw a child and a man standing on the staircase looking at me," she said. "I flew out of the room like a rocket.
"It's not a publicity stunt. This isn't the sort of publicity I want."
She said research had shown there was once an underground tunnel leading from St Nicholas's Parish Church's graveyard to the pub's cellar, and believed this could be the source of the problems.
"The chef Mickey Jeys is at breaking point," she added. "He is a bag of nerves. He ran out crying the other day. I came down the other morning and found him sleeping on the kitchen floor with a rolling pin. I said 'what good is that going to do?'
"He said a gang of them attacked him in the kitchen and threw a steak at him. He now keeps all his knives locked up."
Most of the paranormal activity is contained within guest rooms five and eight, the bar and the cellar, where barman Shane Bennett once saw the figure of a man in a hat.
Friend Debbie Slack, 37, regularly stays at the pub with her three children Sharna, six, Jesse, 12, and Victoria, 16.
She said the two older youngsters no longer wanted to sleep in room eight because of the feelings of dread it filled them with, although her youngest seemed completely at ease.
"She is absolutely fine and things seem to calm down when she is about," said Mrs Slack, 37.
"It wouldn't surprise me if she has made friends with them. She said to me the other day that she didn't want her friend Shawney to leave. There's no-one at school with that name."
Pub poodle Sally has also begun behaving strangely, growling at empty spaces.
Yarmouth ghost-chaser Neil Fellows visited the pub with his Paranormal Dimension team last week and was set to return tonight to film more footage using special infra-red cameras.
He and his wife, Julie have a long-standing fascination with the paranormal and said the pub case was of great interest.
"Although the night we were there was very quiet, we found some unusual stuff on the video tapes and microphones," he said.
"There were some strange sounds. And we saw the same face appear three times on different frames of the video.
"It is certainly interesting enough for us to want to go back there."
'Duking it out with demons'
Exorcist offers services this weekend in events at south Charlotte hotel
KEN GARFIELD
Religion Editor
May 30, 2003
Hollywood, said exorcist Bob Larson, got some of it right and some of it wrong.
The Christian evangelist and self-described exorcist from Denver, Colo., said he hasn't seen any spinning heads or spitting of green pea soup as he endeavors to rid tormented souls of what he believes are their demons. But when he does his thing tonight and Saturday at a south Charlotte hotel, he said there could be a whole lot of gibberish uttered.
"It's supernatural," he said. "It's very dramatic. You don't have to make it sensationalistic. It is."
Larson travels the nation teaching, preaching and purporting to practice the act made famous in "The Exorcist." In the 1973 smash film that spawned a cottage industry of exorcism movies, books and ceremonies, the devil is expelled from a character played by Linda Blair.
Larson will hold what he calls a "Spiritual Freedom Conference" at 7 p.m. today at the Charlotte Marriott Executive Park, 5700 Westpark Drive off Tyvola Road. The event is free, though he'll seek donations and sell his ministry's merchandise. The meeting from noon to around 4 p.m. Saturday at the Marriott costs $39. His ministry anticipates a crowd of 150 to 200.
Larson doesn't make promises. But if you go looking to be exorcised, or to see what it looks like, he said the pattern is for the "sensationalistic" stuff, as he calls it, to begin at 8 to 8:30 tonight.
Larson, 58, appreciates the chance to demystify something he said he's been doing 30 years. Exorcism, he said, has to do with taking a person back to the source of their pain, then leading them toward getting rid of what he calls demonic forces that caused the problem. A person often begins to speak in weird or unintelligible language after going back to where and when the hellish moment in their life took place, he said.
An exorcism, he said, can take from 15 minutes to two hours.
He said more than 50 percent of cases involve people whose problems stem from issues of sex and violence, such as rape, incest or molestation. Recently in Memphis, a woman he said was a prostitute went back 50 generations and gave voice to an East Indian woman at the root of the problem.
"Some of these stories get pretty bizarre," Larson said.
Exorcisms aren't totally out of the realm of mainstream religion.
The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church allows exorcisms to be performed by a priest with the permission of a bishop.
And although no one can accurately estimate how many exorcists are practicing how many exorcisms in the United States, believers are everywhere.
Postal worker Boyce Faulkner III of Charlotte said his demons were exorcised in a Charlotte ceremony in 1979. "Next thing I knew," he said, "they cast two demons out of me. I had a peace. Before, I had inner turmoil. A lot of conflict."
Faulkner, 55, believes the devil grabbed hold of him as a result of some things he said he shouldn't have done during trips to Mexico when he was a Marine in the 1960s. He hopes to attend Larson's programs in Charlotte. He supports the radio and TV ministry with $25 a month.
Others are skeptical.
The Christian Research Institute in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., put out a 2002 statement chiding Larson for wavering "between presenting balanced teaching grounded in biblical truth and espousing dangerous ideas established by his alleged encounters with the supernatural."
Fordham University professor Michael Cuneo studied Larson for a 2002 book -- "American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty" (Broadway, $13.95). Cuneo said he's suspicious of exorcists and interest stirred by the 1973 movie.
Cuneo, who witnessed 50 exorcisms researching his book, said the practice endures because we live in a culture where people are desperate for a quick-fix cure. It's also a no-fault culture where it's easier to point the finger at the devil: "It's not myself, Mike Cuneo, who's to blame," he said. "It's my demons."
Cuneo said the crying, trembling and wailing that goes on at an exorcism comes from people desperate to be healed.
"You don't want to disappoint," he said. "You have a guy working and sweating for you ... Guys like Larson truly believe they have a calling to expel demons. It's like the final frontier -- the lone gunman duking it out with demons."
Whether faith, cynicism or curiosity drives people to Larson's meeting, tonight won't be just another evening at the Marriott. In addition to an exorcist, the hotel is hosting a sci-fi convention.
Exorcism planned for school toilet 'ghost'
A village in India is planning to hold a Hindu religious ceremony to drive away a ghost from a school toilet.
Residents of Kapurawala village, near Jaipur, are so scared they have stopped sending their daughters to the government middle school for girls.
It is reported three students suffered epileptic fits after visiting the toilet.
One of the teachers obtained a quick transfer after being "gripped by fear" of a spirit that prowled near the toilet.
Sub-Inspector of Police Hakim Singh told United News of India: ''Nobody has seen the ghost, but the school toilet, suspected to be the devil's den, was brought down by villagers.''
The villagers, who believe the ghost is still haunting the school, say they are determined to hold a yagya (a fire purification ceremony) to exorcise the ''ghost'' and to bring girls back to school.
Story filed: 20:21 Sunday 1st June 2003
Ghost busters hunt entrail-eating bogies
Unexplained deaths alarm Isan township
June 3, 2003
Sumet Suwannapruek
More than 1,000 people joined in a ceremony yesterday to exorcise pee-paub they believed responsible for unexplained deaths in the neighbourhood in the past weeks.
The ceremony was briefly mistaken by officials as a protest against the Apec trade ministers' meeting, which ended in Khon Kaen yesterday.
Traffic on the Friendship highway was disrupted for hours as the villagers hunted for the paub _ a kind of ghost that feeds on raw human entrails.
A similar ceremony had been held twice before to expel the evil spirits from the 1,200-household suburban community in tambon Muang Kao, in Muang district. Yet, some ghosts remained, people believed.
Phra Khru Udom Panyakorn, a veteran exorcist from Udon Thani's Wat Banpotwanaram, was called in to catch and destroy the paub.
The ceremony was funded by the one-million-baht village fund. Heads of four villages called a meeting and agreed it was a worthy expenditure.
The participants were also encouraged to make donations and to rent amulets of Phra Khru Udom at 30 baht apiece.
The activity began with Phra Khru Udom chanting a mantra to suppress the evil spirits. Ten people were then selected to lead five catching teams, each carrying lengths of hollow bamboo in which the evil paub could be trapped inside once caught.
At the end of a three-hour search in every corner of the community and along the Friendship highway, Phra Khru Udom declared that a total of 39 ghosts were caught. They would be eliminated later by cremation.
``Nine of them are strong-willed pee-paub. The rest are other ghosts and stray spirits,'' the monk said.
Udom Buasri, former lecturer on Buddhism and philosophy at Khon Kaen University, said exorcism was a social norm in the Northeast.
However, the fact almost 2,000 people joined in yesterday's ceremony was quite extraordinary. Nowadays, less than 10% of the population believed in exorcism.
``I think so many people joined the ceremony because they didn't know the cause of death of those people.
``This is one way to explain it and it really has psychological effects,'' Mr Udom said.
He warned, however, there were people who played with people's beliefs and tried to cash in on a good-faith ceremony like yesterday's.
``Sometimes it turns out to be a scam.''
Father shackles, starves son to drive away ghosts
June 6, 2003
IANS
KOLKATA: A superstitious father in eastern India is being charged with wilful neglect of his son after he kept him in chains for four months and starved him to apparently rid the youth of ghosts.
The son's face was also regularly burnt with incense sticks, but the remorseless father claimed all this was for the good of the 25-year-old because he was possessed by two ghosts -- a male and a female at that.
For four months, Ajit Sardar shackled his son Tarun to a post on the veranda of their house in Merudandi village, some 75 km north of Kolkata.
Sardar, who consulted about 20 witchdoctors to decide on his son's "treatment", refused to heed neighbours' advice to see a doctor and covered the veranda with a marquee so that people couldn't see the chained man.
Police, who were looking for the shaman who suggested the "treatment", said they were framing charges against the father for wilful neglect of his son and endangering his life.
"We rescued the man on Thursday after being informed by the villagers. Tarun has been sent to a hospital for a check-up," said Basudeb Bag, police chief of North 24 Pargana district, under which falls the Merudandi village.
Some villagers said they informed the police earlier also, but no action had been taken.
Sardar told the police that his son was "responding to the treatment and the male ghost had already left".
The young man's travails began some time in January when he got fever. He had then just returned from New Delhi, where he had gone to work for six months.
His father took him to a witchdoctor, but the series of rituals and mumbo-jumbo didn't improve Tarun's health.
Finally, Sardar met a person called Jahar Gunin, who claimed he was an accomplished witchdoctor. Gunin "diagnosed" Tarun as being possessed by twin ghosts and said he should be kept chained in the house.
The shaman also said the possessed man should be fed less and his face should be scalded with incense sticks so that the ghosts would leave.
The hapless son protested, but in vain. He was allowed out of the chains only to let him bathe. When police rescued him, they found that the man had to even answer nature's call on the veranda.
The torture had left the man emaciated and he appeared disoriented when police spoke to him.
Chilean family want house exorcised after third mystery blaze
A Chilean family want a priest to exorcise their house after it reportedly spontaneously combusted for the third time.
Juan Ulloa Vera and his wife Mirtha, who live in the house in Talagante with their four children, believe it is haunted.
They set it has burst into flames three times since they moved in two years ago and that there has been no rational explanation for the fires.
Mr Ulloa Vera says: "The first time was in December 2001. We almost had a heart attack when we saw this massive ball of fire, the size of a football going against the wall. And the things it touched turned as cold as ice.
"After the second fire we had to rebuild the house from scratch and had to depend on our neighbour's help. But this is the third fire already and we want a priest to come and exorcise the house!"
Priest Luis Gallardo from the local church has already met the family and has promised to perform an exorcism soon.
A fire service spokesman said: "We have found no normal cause for any of the fires, it's very weird. I think it is a good idea to try the exorcism, but we will investigate more to try to find a suitable answer for those fires."
Story filed: 14:05 Wednesday 25th June 2003
Also see: Judge Institutionalizes Woman Who Drowned Daughter, 4
June 25, 2003, 9:42 PM EDT
A Washington Heights woman who drowned one of her 4-year-old twin daughters as part of an exorcism pleaded guilty by reason of mental defect Wednesday to the 2001 slaying.
Monks drive out evil spirits
`Possessed' students suffer bizarre attacks
Prasit Tangprasert
A religious ceremony to drive away evil spirits was held at a Huai Thalaeng school yesterday, where a number of students had been ``possessed''.
Nine Buddhist monks organised the merit-making ceremony for spirits at Baan Thab Sawai school, where over the past three months several students had acted strangely, uttered rude words and threatened to hurt themselves.
The ceremony was witnessed by many locals and officials led by district chief Pipat Sangkharuek. Provincial governor Sunthorn Riewleung did not attend, but sent a letter apologising to the spirits and asking them to stop haunting villagers and students, or a spirit house in the school compound would be demolished.
After the ceremony, Saichol Lumthaisong, or Nong Nam, 11, went berserk and screamed in her house near the school. She recovered with the help of two Brahmin priests.
Khamphan Lumthaisong said his daughter had had these ``attacks'' two or three times a day for the past three months, but doctors could not find anything wrong with her.
Wassana Larprat and Pornphan Khaenok _ Mathayom 3 students at the school _ said they had suffered similar symptoms, feeling dizzy before collapsing and then waking up while it felt as if someone was pressing down on their chests. Doctors had found nothing wrong with them.
While unconscious, the students claimed, they had seen a bald man wearing black glasses and very old clothes asking them to accompany him.
Baan Thab Sawai director Thaem Sithaisong said the school was at a loss what to do. He confirmed that ``weird things'' had happened but the students had no illnesses or mental problems.
Prakob Pajjayakay, kamnan of tambon Thab Sawai, said monks and psychics agreed that the students had developed the strange symptoms after the school used tractors to clear an adjoining forest without asking the spirits for permission.
Leaders were trying to heal boy, pastor says
Church minister arrested after an 8-year-old stops breathing, dies during a prayer service
By LISA SINK and ALLISON L. SMITH
Last Updated: Aug. 23, 2003
A pastor said Saturday that church leaders were trying to heal an autistic 8-year-old boy when he inexplicably stopped breathing and died during a prayer service Friday night.
During the hourlong session, the boy's feet and hands were restrained by his mother and other church members who prayed intensely for his violent tendencies to cease, the pastor's wife said.
"He just passed away," Pastor David Hemphill said of the boy. "God is a mysterious person, and if he wants to call a life back, he does."
Milwaukee police officers arrested a man Friday night at Faith Temple Church of Apostolic Faith, 8709 N. Fond du Lac Ave., a small storefront in a strip mall that houses Gianelli's Pizza and a dry cleaner.
Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Kim Brooks confirmed Saturday night that Ray Hemphill, the pastor's brother and also a minister at the church, was being held at the Milwaukee County Jail on suspicion of physical abuse of a child, a felony.
The medical examiner's office declined to release results of an autopsy done on the boy, Torrance Cantrell, citing a police request for non-disclosure.
Denise Allison, 25, said she had become close friends with the boy and his mother, Patricia Cooper, during two years living in the duplex above the family in the 5900 block of N. 61st St.
Allison said Torrance, called "Junior" by family and friends, was brilliant with his hands, and could craft complex kites from newspaper. Though hardly able to speak, Torrance would knock on her door and shout with a smile, "Tickle," asking Allison to play with and tickle him.
The boy often initiated play or communication by punching at people and laughing, though neighborhood kids had learned to not feel threatened, Allison said.
"He was really fun to be around, but you had to relax, get to know him and understand his ways," Allison said. "He just wanted love and attention like any other kid."
Previous investigation
Milwaukee Police Capt. Linda Haynes said there was "no striking or anything like that," when asked whether Torrance had been disciplined during the prayer service, but said police were still investigating.
"Circumstances are suspicious because most 8-year-olds don't just die. Unless there's a medical condition - which we're unaware of at this time."
Haynes added that the boy "did not die of natural causes."
No officials would say if they thought the use of restraints was related to the boy's death, or to Ray Hemphill's arrest.
David Hemphill and his church were investigated in 1998 after a mother struck her 12-year-old daughter with a stick during a church service. The girl suffered bruises and cuts.
No charges were filed after authorities talked to the mother and Hemphill, who both defended the physical discipline as necessary for the unruly girl.
David and Pamela Hemphill said that they did not attend Friday's service, but rushed to church after people there called to tell them the boy was not breathing and 911 had been called.
The Hemphills said they talked to the four people who had been at the service: Ray Hemphill, Patricia Cooper and two women they would not name.
Pamela Hemphill said Ray Hemphill led the service and directed the women to restrain the boy.
The women put some sheets and cloth over the boy's outstretched hands, and "one lady held one hand and the other lady held the other, and his mother held his feet," Pamela Hemphill said.
The boy's leather sneakers were removed so he wouldn't hurt anyone if he kicked, she added.
The Hemphills said the boy's mother came to the church seeking help about three months ago and said her son was in danger of being institutionalized because he was violent toward himself and his 2-year-old sister.
"His mother couldn't get any rest, any sleep because he (her son) was just sick," David Hemphill said. "It had really gotten worse."
Praying for a miracle
Some church members began holding prayer sessions with the boy three times a week, he said.
"We were just trying to pray and see if God gave him a miracle," he said.
Pamela Hemphill said the sessions would usually last about two hours with a break halfway.
"Sometimes he kicks and scratches and throws himself to the ground," she said. "They hold his hand or maybe his feet and maybe take his shoes off."
But at Friday's session, she said, the boy was "unusually quiet."
"He seemed to be extremely tired," she said. "He just wiggled and moved a little but not as much as usual."
She said the boy was sitting on the floor with others sitting around him. But at one point he lay down and closed his eyes, she said.
"After they got through praying, one of the ladies said, 'He doesn't look too good today,' " David Hemphill said.
Ray Hemphill checked the boy's pulse and found none, she said. Paramedics arrived but couldn't revive the boy, she said, and pronounced him dead.
David Hemphill said he had no explanation for the sudden death, but said the boy was taking medications.
"I said, 'Well, God just took him,' " he said.
Hemphill said Cooper, who could not be reached Saturday, said " 'My baby's got rest now.' "
Radical change, exorcism talk
Allison and other neighbors said they'd seen radical changes in Cooper's behavior since she joined the church this spring. Once gregarious and energetic, the single mother getting by mostly on Social Security checks began to live in near-seclusion, appearing dazed, exhausted, and increasingly worried.
"They completely brainwashed Pat," Allison said Saturday evening.
She said a church member approached Cooper one day when she was struggling to control Torrance outside their home. The person told Cooper that if she brought her son to the church, he could be "spiritually healed."
Church members began to take Cooper and Torrance to the church in a van three and four times a day for prayer, Allison said. A woman and her daughter moved in with Cooper early this summer and recently moved out, she said. Other church members were in and out of Cooper's apartment, helping her clean and cook. Allison said Cooper told her that during prayer sessions - both at home and at church - church members would forcibly hold down Torrance and strike him in attempts to heal him of his autism.
Allison said Friday's session sounded like one Cooper told her about earlier in the summer.
"She called it an exorcism," Allison said. "She said they held him down for almost two hours. He couldn't hardly breathe, and that shocked (Cooper). Then she said the devil started to speak through Junior's voice - though he can't really speak - saying, 'Kill me. Take me.' "
Allison began to notice that each time the group gathered in the apartment, Torrance would screech, wail and cry. She and other neighbors noticed Torrance had
