Very interesting artical in the Daily Mail weekend supplement regarding a supposed true story of possession.

Where can I read about it? thanks
Do you personaly belive in that?

Do you have a link for it ?

Found a couple articles prior to Halloween...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-......949.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-......ion.html

Very interesting!!! Thanks

Sorry I could not link you up gentleman,not that good on the PC.Thanks for putting a link up for everyone to share DWRackley.

They do exorcisms in my country ALL THE TIME.

Just youtube Malay Exorcism or RASUK.

I think it's all suggestion.

Exorcisms are a real phenomenon. Period.

It's a fascinating subject. I do have very personal views that I nearly posted up but then thought better of it. I'm interested to know if anyone believes it is *actual* demons that cause the possession, or whether the culprit may be the unconscious mind?

I do believe it's both. I mean we know crazed minds can manifest In all sorts of ways. But they are also able to differentiate between both after much analysis and observation.

I beleive to a certain extent that some forms of madness are cases of possession.Proberly get shot down in flames now,but hey ho.

There are no supernatural elements in it though.

Before you say they speak in tongues, they do at hypnosis shows as well.

It's just a hypnosis show taken way too seriously, that's all exorcisms are imho.

I have to agree with you Pakar. My belief is that 'possessions' are just 'abreactions' framed differently. I've experienced both (as in - I've seen people have abreactions and I've seen people get possessed), and they are incredibly similar.

I understand that other people may believe otherwise and that's fine. But IMHO 'there's more of gravy than of grave about you', to frame things in a suitably cheerful festive manner!

I remember reading about Dr Mesmer getting famous and his first trip to India - he walked up to a small boy and waved his mesmeric hands in front of him and went to put him under the 'fluence...nothing happened whatsoever...the boy spoke english perfectly well...

yet over here, amongst those who knew about him, the very same actions caused much mesmeric manifestations to happen...

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if we are taught/shown to behave a certain way by our elders/peers, then we tend to follow their lead - a mix of social compliance, wishful thinking, the imagination, all kinds of things...these all play a part in what we do, how we do it, and WHY we do it...

I think those that believe they are possessed, and get told they are by those in authority - ARE genuinely possessed...its just that I also believe that possession doesn't exist...but if I was asked to write down what a possession would be like, it would look like every single one I've ever seen - whether its been in a book, a film, or a youtube clip...

"oh, you didn't hear about that iain? he behaved like *xyz* and some say he's possessed..."
"what's that?"
"don't you know? he's been dabbling with evil spirits they say...and one took him over..."
"ah, that'll explain his wild behaviour then!"

thinking about it - if possession is possible, and hundreds of thousands of people have experienced it - I find it interesting that no one in a position of political power has ever been possessed and the bomb dropped...

there's a story ready to be written in there somewhere...

ultimately - the imagination is a massively powerful device, it can make us convince ourselves that someone is out to get us, make us think the person on tv is just like their character, that our crush is leaving us secret signs - even that "life is ok if I can get this piece of paper in the bin from here"....

we should work harder on explaining what our imagination can do for both good and bad to our kids and society in general...

culturally, we brits are known for being fairly big drinkers and often quite loud and quarrelsome when on it too - yet in comparison to some other european cities, they drink more and at a younger age - yet do not get loud and fight to anywhere near the same degree as us... its a learned behaviour, a cultural thing...some see the examples happen in front of them, and it becomes their reality too because they know what to do as it were...

"It is better to believe than to disbelieve,in doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility." Albert Einstein

A quote-off!

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." ~Aristotle

It's hard to say to much without weighing in on religious beliefs or stepping on toes. I'll try to be gentle.

A great way to undermine the credibility of all miracle workers is to show the world plenty of fake miracles. "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." An exorcism is an easy miracle to fake. Exorcisms are not the kinds of miracles I would point to while reasoning with skeptics. On the other hand, if I were the Devil I'd want cheats and frauds to captivate the gullible with fake miracles. To skeptics it makes believers in all things supernatural seem credulous and stupid. Pride then keeps skeptics from belief in everything miraculous lest they appear stupid, while false miracles keep a number of believers from discovering what is true.

This all reminds me of a funny yet kinda sad episode of Shirley Ghostman starring Bob Larson.

One of my favourite clips...(and a fantastic show)..NSFW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7IIumu0FJU

Glad to know you agree.

At 3.46 I find it interesting that Lucifer would be so chummy as to gently tap the arm of the person trying to exorcise him...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nh_TE894no