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It’s fashionable to write this phenomenon off… but I mention it as it got brought up in a priesthood class today. What do people think? I don’t see why not, there is probably more recent anecdotal evidence for possession and demon hauntings than there is for a personal God at least in terms of the number of people that claim to have experienced spirit manifestations directly. Of course skeptics can always claim this is all in people’s minds whether some kind of hallucination, neurosis, temporary insanity, etc. so I don’t really expect the existence of spirits to ever be proven conclusively. In addition to the possibility of evil spirits I also think people’s own spirit or soul can become relatively evil in this life and in my opinion one of the primary symptoms of this is hating and cursing Jesus for no apparent reason. On my mission in Brazil we gave one lady a blessing that claimed she was being repeatedly tormented by evil spirits. Regardless of what it was that caused these experiences the blessing seemed to work because after that she was baptized and never said anything about it again while I was there and the last I heard she was still active in the Church several years later.
I think on the whole we are all possessed. Otherwise we would all act like the angels of heaven we really are. Instead, we feel annoyed, irritated, angry, and dissatisfied perpetually. Casting out the evil spirit from our own body so the Santa Claus sized spirit can be free is the great object of the game of life. Yes. I think people exhibit something at times that we call “possession.” I can’t say for sure what it is, but it describes a phenomenon that happens. I am open to this idea.
In the Mormon Stories podcast with Richard Dutcher he talks about an experience with an “evil presence” that he still can’t explain away with reason even after losing his faith. Then when he was on his mission there was a lady claiming to be possessed, his companion whimped out and he went in to “cast out the demon”. As soon as he got in the room he knew she was faking because the “darkness” that he was already familiar with just wasn’t there. He told her to knock it off, and she was “healed” until he got transferred and then she “got possessed” again. Good video podcast if you have the time to watch it.
As I see it the prevailing trend is to attribute all of it to schizophrenia. Some such behavior is indeed because of this. Schizophrenics do indeed often think that someone is “influencing” them, but I suppose it depends whether it can be proven that the person is genuinely experiencing something other, rather than a splintered part of themselves. In “People of the Lie”, by M. Scott Peck, the author discusses evil, and the nature of evil. It’s quite interesting, because he as a psychiatrist periodically came across people who seemed to have some external factor, that he could not attribute solely to the patient’s mental state.
It’s a bit of a film cliche, I know, but if a child suddenly started speaking to me in Latin or Sanskrit, without ever having been taught it, then I would have my suspicions.
On the other hand, I’m well aware that certain small churches go the other way and attribute anything and everything to it.* That’s wrong. I suspect the answer is that it’s rarer than they think it is, and more common than mainstream Christianity might be prepared to admit.
* Check this out for example –
I doubt it. I hate things that make Satan or his followers out to be more powerful than God. Or at least be so powerful as to cause such pain to an individual. No that is not my God that would allow a bunch of outcasts run around hurting people. I don’t know, although I do believe it is possible – and I had one experience on my mission that made me believe in “evil” as an actual, spiritual reality. I wrote the following on my own blog just last month about evil spirits:
“Evil Spirits in Our Modern World” (
http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2011/01/evil-spirits-in-our-modern-world.html I have had two personal experiences with casting out supposed evil spirits using priesthood authority. I don’t know how much of it was psychological vs. real, but I can say that in both cases the people were terrified and had thoughts of harming themselves and others. Again, it’s difficult for me to tell how much of this was real, as I do know that both of these people suffered from depression. But I did what was requested of me and the “possessions” seemed to end. Outside of that, I’ve never had any personal experiences beyond general creepiness. Initial reflex: “No, I don’t believe in that.” If I stop and think about it I have seen some people that truly seemed out of control, whatever you would call it. I tend to think it has more to do with an element that exists in the person than an external supernatural entity taking possession of their body — whatever that means, if there is a difference.
If there is a close link between the personality and the person, as there is in many schizophrenia and split personality cases, then I tend to think it’s not. But it’s when the “demon” exhibits traits completely alien or different from the person I wonder. I have wondered why, especially in New Testament times there seemed to be a lot of possessed people. Jesus cast out the demons, even talking to them. So… Is the New Testament historically acurate in its portrayal of demon possession? I am sceptical on the whole demon thing. I do know that about once a month there seems to be strange person in my house… :silent: f4h0
f4h1, for many years I had similar musings about the New Testament. Things made a lot more sense for me when I realized that the New Testament is not a different world than mine; it’s just a different culture. When the New Testament says somebody has a devil, it can be translated that the person is crazy. For example, Jesus says, “John the Baptist came fasting and you said he was crazy (had a devil). I come eating and drinking and you say I’m a wino. Well? Which is it?” Tom
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