If you know something about exorcisms then go on and raise your hand. Now if everything you know about exorcisms came from the movies feel free to put that hand down. A lot of what goes into a Hollywood film is about as reliable as the ‘news’ you can get from one of the gossip rags that supermarkets keep in the wire racks near the cash register. Most of the time possessions are nothing more than the figment of some troubled mind and are about as real as mermaid riding a unicorn over a rainbow. Yeah, that real.
Here are a few things the movies keep getting wrong.
5. The possession comes on quickly.
If it was that easy to possess a human body it would mean that free will is a joke and that anyone could be possessed without any effort at any given time. Demon-infested hosts would be running rampant and exorcisms would be a fond memory since each one takes time and must be sanctioned by the church. In other words to combat them all would be impossible.
4. Once a possession occurs a priest must be called.
We need a a young priest, and an old priest. The power of God compels you! Yeah, no. Usually a priest WILL be called, but they’ll do an evaluation of the individual first to make sure that the person is actually possessed and not suffering some mental ailment that has managed to radically change their personality. It’s not really possible to exorcise a mental disorder.
3. Demons can resist the power of God.
If you believe in the power and sanctity of the lord and King of Kings then you should know that there is no trump card that can block Him. If the possession is real and a priest must come in to perform the rites, then there’s no chance that the demon is coming out the other side with a win. In the movies this might happen because the spirit gets contained, but in real life once that spirit is driven out it’s out.
2. Exorcisms are violent and painful.
They might very well be painful, but this is usually if they are authentic. Being violent on the other hand is not so much the case. The physical pain of a possession is said to be something that is hard to measure since no one can really tell what the possessed are feeling. It might look painful and it might sound as though they’re in agony, but if it’s real then the pain is being felt mostly by the spirit as it attempts to stay latched to the body during an exorcism.
1. The physical appearance of the possessed changes drastically.
Rarely has it been recorded that a possession will mark a human being so badly as has happened in the movies. If this does happen then it is on the part of the possessed, as they might inflict wounds upon themselves for one reason or another. However this too could be the fault of some mental disorder that has to be evaluated before anything can be done.
Exorcisms are not the earth-shattering experiences they appear to be in movies. Otherwise they’d be newsworthy every time one occurred.
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