Demonic Possession, is it real or group hysteria?

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Is Demonic Possession real or group hysteria?

  • Absolutely real

    Votes: 10 18.9%
  • Probably real

    Votes: 2 3.8%
  • It's real, but you have to invite evil influences into your life

    Votes: 8 15.1%
  • No, not real; anyone claiming this is a mental case.

    Votes: 28 52.8%
  • There is a good force and a bad force in our universe-a person has to decide which force they choose

    Votes: 2 3.8%
  • diamondbruno#9, do you have your own church and gospel?

    Votes: 3 5.7%
  • diamond you always make the best threads; cutting edge, pushing the intellectual and religious envel

    Votes: 6 11.3%

  • Total voters
    53
  • Poll closed .

diamond

ONE love, blood, life
Joined
May 3, 2002
Messages
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Location
Tempe, Az USA
Below is an article I happened upon this morning. Do you think it's legit, or all a bunch of hooey?



Real-life case of demon possession documented
Woman levitated, spoke other languages, showed paranormal powers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: March 13, 2008
11:29 pm Eastern

An American woman who levitated, demonstrated paranormal psychic powers and spoke foreign languages unknown to her was clearly demon possessed, according to a board-certified psychiatrist and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College.

The unnamed woman, with a long history of involvement with Satanic groups, was observed by a team of priests, deacons, several lay assistants, psychiatrists, nuns, some of whom also had medical and psychiatric training, levitating six inches off the ground while objects flew off shelves in the same room, according to Dr. Richard E. Gallagher, who documented the case in the February issue of the New Oxford Review.

"Periodically, in our presence, Julia would go into a trance state of a recurring nature," writes Gallagher. "Mentally troubled individuals often 'dissociate,' but Julia's trances were accompanied by an unusual phenomenon: Out of her mouth would come various threats, taunts and scatological language, phrases like 'Leave her alone, you idiot,' 'She's ours,' 'Leave, you imbecile priest,' or just 'Leave.' The tone of this voice differed markedly from Julia's own, and it varied, sometimes sounding guttural and vaguely masculine, at other points high pitched. Most of her comments during these 'trances,' or at the subsequent exorcisms, displayed a marked contempt for anything religious or sacred."


the-satan-pit-doctor-beast3.jpg




The subject would have no recollection of speaking these phrases upon recovering from the trance-like state, according to Gallagher.

"Sometimes objects around her would fly off the shelves, the rare phenomenon of psychokinesis known to parapsychologists," reports Gallagher. "Julia was also in possession of knowledge of facts and occurrences beyond any possibility of their natural acquisition.

"She commonly reported information about the relatives, household composition, family deaths and illnesses, etc., of members of our team, without ever having observed or been informed about them," he said. "As an example, she knew the personality and precise manner of death (i.e., the exact type of cancer) of a relative of a team member that no one could conceivably have guessed. She once spoke about the strange behavior of some inexplicably frenzied animals beyond her direct observation: Though residing in another city, she commented, 'So those cats really went berserk last night, didn't they?' the morning after two cats in a team member's house uncharacteristically had violently attacked each other at about 2 a.m."

Julia requested a Roman Catholic exorcism ritual, convinced from the beginning of her consultations that she was under demonic attack.

"The exorcism began on a warm day in June," Gallagher recollects. "Despite the weather, the room where the rite was being conducted grew distinctly cold. Later, however, as the entity in Julia began to spout vitriol and make strange noises, members of the team felt themselves profusely sweating due to a stifling emanation of heat. The participants all said they found the heat unbearable.

"Julia at first had gone into a quiet trance-like state. After the prayers and invocations of the Roman Ritual had been going on for a while, however, multiple voices and sounds came out of her. One set consisted of loud growls and animal-like noises, which seemed to the group impossible for any human to mimic. At one point, the voices spoke in foreign languages, including recognizable Latin and Spanish. (Julia herself only speaks English, as she later verified to us.)

"The voices were noticeably attacking in nature, and often insolent, blasphemous and highly scatological. They cursed and insulted the participants in the crudest way. They were frequently threatening – trying, it appeared, to fight back – 'Leave her alone,' 'Stop, you whores' (to the nuns), 'You'll be sorry,' and the like.

"Julia also exhibited enormous strength. Despite the religious sisters and three others holding her down with all their might, they struggled to restrain her. Remarkably, for about 30 minutes, she actually levitated about half a foot in the air."

The purpose of Gallagher's paper, he says, is to "document a contemporary and clear-cut case of demonic possession." He explains that even those who doubt such a phenomenon exists may find this case "rather persuasive."

"Possession is only one and not the most common type of demonic attack. Possession is very rare, though not as exceedingly so as many imagine," he concludes. "So-called 'oppression,' or 'infestation,' is less rare, though hardly frequent either, and sometimes more difficult to discern accurately."

christus_statue_temple_square_salt_lake_city.jpg
 
Even though I am a Christian (in a rudimentary sense), I don't believe in the whole good/evil, Satan/God dichotomy. I guess I see "demon possession" as some sort of mental illness or psychiatric disorder. Since I don't really believe in Satan as a being, it's hard to believe in him or his minions possessing people. I do think there are things we don't understand and cannot explain and I'm not close-minded about this, I just won't blame it on Satan b/c to me that's too easy. I don't like it when people default to, "oh it must be demon possession/Satan's fault!" when they lack any other explanation.
 
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I think Satan is subjugated to man's free will.

The problem is some of mankind do not realize this, thereby being subjugated to Satan's promptings and temptations and before long find themselves addicted to power, addicted to physical or sexual appeitites becoming more animal like instead of God like.


dbs
 
Diamond,

It is against the rules to use multiple usernames to vote in a poll/rate threads.

What do I have to do wrong to get a warning or banned from the forum?

In general, using alters to violate Forum Rules/FAQs, voting multiple times in polls, as well as other common sense 'no-nos' will result in the banning of the alters and possibly the banning of the original username. Remember that alters are a priviledge.


Please do not let me see you doing this again, thanks.
 
hey, isn't that devil picture from an episode of Doctor Who? Seems like I just saw that a few weeks ago.
 
people should have the right to believe whatever they want

regardless of the lack of validity of those beliefs



pushing those views on others
or wanting them validated by governments or laws is where the line must be drawn
 
deep said:
people should have the right to believe whatever they want


They do.

However with certain beliefs and behaviors come consequences of those beliefs that one has to free will to employ.

dbs
 
Sicy said:
Diamond,

It is against the rules to use multiple usernames to vote in a poll/rate threads.




Please do not let me see you doing this again, thanks.

Sicy,


Other than that do you like my snazzy thread?

<>
 
Irvine511 said:
it's hooey.

So those clegymen and the girl that was levitated, accompanied with multi-lingual incognito venquilitrists- were all in collusion all fibbing and the whole event was a parlor trick!?
:ohmy:

Or was it a real event with super natural things occuring?

dbs
 
diamond said:
Dunno.
:)
Where is our Dr Who anyway?

dbs

Yep, I was right. The pic is from season 2.

As for the member who goes by the moniker of DoctorWho? I believe he's still around, but I haven't seen him here in FYM in quite some time.
 
sulawesigirl4 said:


Yep, I was right. The pic is from season 2.

As for the member who goes by the moniker of DoctorWho? I believe he's still around, but I haven't seen him here in FYM in quite some time.

I think he got his feelings hurt here.


:(

There is an interesting story behind that artist's rendition of the Satanic figure in the picture posted. If you're interested I can post a link or email it to you.

dbs
 
Irvine511 said:
it's hooey.

:up:


I was curious as to who would actually publish such crap, so I did some digging. The New Oxford Review is a religious publication, and not a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Here's the link to the original article:

http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?print=1&did=0308-gallagher

I was also curious as to who this 'board certified psychiatrist' is, and what would prompt him to investigate such nonsense. This is at the beginning of the article:

Richard E. Gallagher, M.D., is a board-certified psychiatrist in private practice in Hawthorne, New York, and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at New York Medical College. He is also on the faculties of the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Institute and a Roman Catholic seminary. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University, magna cum laude in Classics, and trained in Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Gallagher is the only American psychiatrist to have been a consistent U.S. delegate to the International Association of Exorcists, and has addressed its plenary session.

So, he obviously has an interest in promoting a Catholic agenda.


Mystery solved. It's crap.
 
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deep said:


ok


post the link

Ok, all I ask is that you and others *do not* again please *do not* make light of this person's experience.

He's a realtor like you.

He's married, sane, calm successful man and had a type of OBE/dream where he found himself out of his body and in Hell for 23 minutes.

He claimed it was as real or more real than being here on Earth now.

The picture posted represents most accurately of what one of the demons that tormented him looked liked while he was in Hell.

Demon.jpg


billwiese.jpg


http://www.spiritlessons.com/Documents/BillWiese_23MinutesInHell_Text.htm

You can watch or listen to his account here:

http://www.spiritlessons.com/

Here's what he says to all ppl who are curious about what happened to him:


"Even if you don’t believe my story, I hope you will believe the Scriptures and avoid hell just the same."



dbs
 
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diamond said:


So those clegymen and the girl that was levitated, accompanied with multi-lingual incognito venquilitrists- were all in collusion all fibbing and the whole event was a parlor trick!?
:ohmy:

Or was it a real event with super natural things occuring?

dbs

People believe what they want to see. If all your life you've been planted with seeds of possessions, stigmatas, speaking in tongues, etc then you're going to look for those things very hard, and your mind will trick you into believing someone with autism that just repeated something they saw on the TV was a possession.

If you're actively looking for an alien spaceship than any light will spark your imagination. If you're looking for a conspiracy, you can easily find enough odd facts to allow you to believe you found one. If you're looking for a sign, anything can be manipulated into one...
 
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diamond said:


Ok, all I ask is that you and others *do not* again please *do not* make light of this person's experience.

He's a realtor like you.

He's married, sane, calm successful man and had a type of OBE/dream where he found himself out of his body and in Hell for 23 minutes.

He claimed it was as real or more real than being here on Earth now.

The picture posted represents most accurately of what one of the demons that tormented looked liked while he wasin Hell.

Why should his dream mean anything to me? Honestly why should his dream be anymore important than the one I had last night.

And how did he know it was 23 minutes? Does hell have clocks?
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:


Why should his dream mean anything to me? Honestly why should his dream be anymore important than the one I had last night.

And how did he know it was 23 minutes? Does hell have clocks?

Why don't read his story before you ridicule the man?

dbs
 
diamond said:


He's a realtor like you.

He's married, sane, calm successful man and had a type of OBE/dream where he found himself out of his body and in Hell for 23 minutes.




"Even if you don’t believe my story, I hope you will believe the Scriptures and avoid hell just the same."



dbs


the fact that this man says he is a Realtor

and I possess a Real Estate Brokers license with the state of CA

is about as relevant as saying Charles Manson is the same astrological sign as you. :shrug:



as for the scriptures
there is a lot there that one should not believe

and Hell is a man made concept




it's a known fact

gbs
 
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