posted
*mild spoilers* I watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose the other night. It brought back a bunch of memories of my LDS mission.
First off, I loved the movie (at first)--because I thought it was based on a true story. Well it is---mildly. In the true story of the German girl Anneliese Michel, they performed the exorcism 70+ times. In the true story I completely see how the preachers and Anneliese got caught in a loop feeding each other’s expectations. The movie misled me into thinking there was only one exorcism—taking away the loop that fed the disorder.
I felt the movie was manipulative. Since it said it was based on a true story, I believed that it happened in America. I believed that the lawyer actually got a killer loose who killed again. Et Cetera.
Now my mission: I served in Korea for 2 years. After one year I was assigned to be a senior companion over a Korean. I don't know about other missions, but in Korea having an American be senior only happened once before me in the entire history of our mission.
My interests have always included psychology. I now have my degree in it. After one week with me, Elder Kim started to have symptoms of schizophrenia. Within 2 weeks he was in full-blown mode where he had symptoms more then 70% of the time.
We found out he lied about his age--he was only 18. He lied to his family. He lied to the church. It took a month to locate his family--poor farmers far away.
In that month the mental health facilities were full, and I became a stay at home companion for 30 days while the Mission President tried to figure out where to put him.
30 days, a Religious Mission, and a disorder that often incorporates religious figures. You can imagine the results.
Kim was never epileptic, but he did uproot saplings, break doors, obsessively clean, rip up pictures of Christ, and talked about how Satan was going to visit us at specific times.
It was bizarre enough that the other 4 missionaries wanted to perform an exorcism during the first episode. I over-ruled it thinking it was mental illness and not a demon. When the mission president came to evaluate the situation, he had an interview with Elder Kim in a room alone. He left crying after 15 minutes and would not, stop, talk, or look at us as he ran out the house and drove away.
At the end of the day, it was very sad, very hard, and he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. I was never convinced there were demons. Out of everyone involved, I alone held that belief.
There were, however, three times I questioned my rationality. There were three incidents where I looked in his eyes, and despite my rational mind, wondered if I was looking into an evil entity that was exploiting a weak person.
I don't think I was looking at a demon--but I couldn't help wondering.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the realities of evil? Is there an evil entity with awareness who tried to get involved in our lives? Is evil an abstract idea? What about possessions or that movie?
posted
Read Glimpses of the Devil by M. Scott Peck. I would be VERY interested to know what you think of it, as I've read it, but don't have any background in psychology. Peck is a psychiatrist (a Christian as well, but I think I can say that he's a psychiatrist first, a man a faith second -- in other words, his first inclination is to believe that the problem is mental, not spiritual). The book is a recounting of two cases he worked on that he eventually diagnosed as demon possession.
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posted
Thanks Jeniwren! I will go look at it this week. When I was in highschool I read The Road Less Traveld and People of the Lie .
People of the Lie was a personal favorite for a long time and helped shape my concept of good and evil. Since it is so often quoted in pop-psychology, I have noticed that the professional community dismisses it--and I am surrounded by Christians.
I broke it out recently because There is a chapter that describes my and ex-inlaw perfectly. It is still an interesting read to me.
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posted
Here is a quote from a reader on the Amazon.com site for People of the Lie. It is a good synopsis.
quote: "Evil is the exercise of power, the imposing of one's will upon others by overt or covert coercion". "The core of evil is ego-centricity, whereby others are sacrificed rather than the ego of the individual." These words and the following analysis that Scott Peck gives us into the world of evil are sorely needed now in America. At the heart of our political and moral meltdown is the force of evil. According to Dr. Peck (psychology) ego-centric persons are utterly dedicated to preserving their self-serving image. They cultivate an image of being a good, right, God-fearing citizens. They specialize in self-deceit and thus are People of the Lie.
posted
I was asked to perform two exorcisms in Italy while I was a missionary there. Both were cases where mental health assistance was needed.
I believe in the existence of an adversary to goodness. I think that the methods he used to discourage and tempt people a hundred years ago are different than the ones he uses now.
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posted
If you liked People of the Lie, you'll enjoy Glimpses of the Devil, I think. I read PotL a long time ago and really got a lot out of it...just very thought provoking. I still think a lot about corporate evil as he describes it -- the evil that can come of organizations where no one takes personal responsibility.
After I became a Christian, though, while I believed in evil prior, I remain uncomfortable with spiritual evil as a concept. I can't deny I believe in it, but I'm not easily willing to ascribe evil acts to their influence. "The Devil made me do it" is very false to me, largely because I believe we always have a choice. Which is discussed in Peck's Glimpses of the Devil. I think what I got out of it most was the role of choice in the midst of spiritual evil.
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posted
lem -- there is SO much I could say in line with your first post, but because it is so very personal, and for me involves someone I am very close to with symptoms very close to how you describe Elder Kim in your post, I just can't bring myself to share it on a public forum at this point. And it was years ago...and perhaps better left back there....
posted
I don't believe in the personification of evil; there are, as far as I know, no supernatural wicked spirits out there trying to tempt or otherwise drive men to harm.
That said, I believe that there are things and people which actively reduce the amount of good in the world, sometimes even deliberately.
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quote: Did you perform the exorcism? If so, did you feel it was successful?
No-- we gave one guy a blessing, but it was pretty much, "Follow your psychologist's advice." (He was seeing a psychologist/psychiatrist at the time)
quote:Ohh. I would like to explore those methods. What do you think they were and how did they change?
Well, I don't think demonic possession is high on his list of 'effective means of spreading misery' any longer.
Instead, he uses shows like the Teletubbies to do that.
This may be a case where I spouted off a belief before really examing why I believe what I believe. SO* let me think on it a bit more.
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quote:Does anyone have any thoughts on the realities of evil? Is there an evil entity with awareness who tried to get involved in our lives? Is evil an abstract idea? What about possessions or that movie?
Well, I believe "evil" is as real as "good" is (and I believe in "good"). I don't believe there is a being that is the Personification of Evil. I think "Evil" is a myth people use to avoid responsibility. On the other hand, "evil" (lowercase) to me is conciously choosing wrong, doing wrong just for the sake of doing wrong, or returning bad for good.
I do not believe in demons and therefore do not believe in "possessions". I really liked The Exorcism of Emily Rose because it seemed to me to be a very plausible case of what many may call "demon possession", but left room for alternative explanation. I thought the characters were believable and even the events were believable if you took into account that they were being recounted by impressionable human beings with their own personal philosophical beliefs.
I've had several experiences that I would call "strange" or "spooky". But we live in a world where nearly everything "Demonic" or even "Miraculous" (note the capitals) is pretty thoroughly debunked to the degree that those few incidences where thorough debunking isn't possible, it's most likely because of faulty witnesses or extra-clever charlatans. (IMHO)
This is not meant to discount personal experiences of "the divine". As we argued pretty thoroughly in another thread a while back, those are pretty conclusively subjective.
I believe that demon possession of the past was likely mental illness.
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