Possession psychic?

Can you be possessed by the devil? Possession, what is it anyway? All over the world, there are whole tribes of people who firmly believe that the devil or other demons can take possession of our bodies. And that eventually a psychic, priest or medicine man must be involved to banish the devil and save the person in question.

But how do you know if someone is actually possessed by the devil? What are the symptoms?

Symptoms of demon possession

suddenly increased body strength
sudden onset of unexplained pain
chronic fatigue and lethargy
uncontrolled uttering of profanities, swear words, strange noises and obscene language
malignant facial expression, change in the position of the eyes
unexplained tantrums
self-harm and suicidal tendencies
having multiple personalities
extreme fear or phobia
nightmares
amnesia
depression
sudden character change
hearing voices that other people cannot hear
psychic perceptions

After reading all these symptoms, you quickly come to the conclusion that all the characteristics of possession can be traced back to mental disorders such as:

Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (excessive irritability, anger outbursts and sleep disturbances after exposure to a traumatic experience)
Gilles de la Tourette (having physical tics and uncontrollably uttering profanities, obscenities and swear words)
MPS (multiple personality syndrome)
hysteria (loss of self-control due to extreme sexual pleasure or severe forms of anger or fear in which the body can twist itself into the strangest of turns)
schyzophrenia (hearing voices in the head)
delusions (seeing things and persons that are not there, having a distorted view of reality),
depression
mood swings
etc.

Devil

Unfortunately, there was still a lot of ignorance in the psychiatric and psychological field back then, so many phenomena were blamed on the devil. In those days, incest, child abuse and other forms of severe maltreatment did occur, so that children who were victims of this also started to show certain behaviour without there being any explanation at first sight. Probably the child suffered from a behavioural or personality disorder caused by the trauma, but it was blamed on the devil through ignorance.

Neurological conditions such as paralysis, spasm or epilepsy were also mistakenly mistaken for demonic possession. When a person has an epileptic seizure, it is not infrequently accompanied by convulsions and foaming at the mouth.

Because the muscles stiffen to such an extent, this causes the head to make involuntary, rapid movements and the patient to produce strange sounds due to the cramping of the throat muscles, which was mistaken for 'the voice of the devil'.

Congenital chromosomal abnormalities like Down's syndrome, for example, were also considered the work of the devil by the church. In fact everything that people at the time had no explanation for was shoved into the devil's hooves...

One of the best-known stories of an exorcism is that of Anneliese Michel, a girl from southern Germany (1952-1976). Afterwards, two feature films were made based on this history (the Exorsism of Emily Rose in 2005 and the film Requim in 1996).

Devil's Exorcism

Anneliese suffered from epilepsy for which she was given medication. Nevertheless, her condition worsened. On top of her epilepsy, she contracted Tuberculosis for which she was admitted to a sanatorium. This environment did her no good; Anneliese became severely depressed.

In 1970, when it became clear after a neurological examination that her EEG showed abnormalities, she first saw demonic visions not long after. After her parents enlisted the help of a priest to perform an exorcism in 1974, things went completely from bad to worse ...

Read more in the book 'Glass spinning is not (un)dangerous. For online ordering click >HERE

You can order directly from the printer >HERE

Books specific to Anneliese can be found >HERE

The film 'The exorcism of Emily Rose' can be found >HERE

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