After running across an article last semester about an exorcism that occurred at Berry College (a private college in Rome, Georgia) in 2009, I’ve built up quite an interest around this phenomenon and with exorcisms in general (you can find out about Berry here, if you’re interested: http://www.ajc.com/news/exorcism-stirs-debate-among-156431.html and http://vikingfusion.berry.edu/news/news-archive/berry-ra-says-he-performed-an-exorcism-on-campus/). Raised Roman Catholic, exorcisms are one of those bizarre things I grew up knowing about but never really understood what was going on until later. Now in connection to the Cartesian split, I find myself ruminating on possessions and exorcisms once again.
To me, there’s two minds and two bodies in this issue: the minds of the possessed and the exorcist, and the bodies of both individuals. In both cases, it’s the weakness of the body trying to be overcome by the strength and goodness of the mind/soul. The body of the possessed appears to do something out of the ordinary (in the case of Berry College, the girl who was thought to be possessed gave an “evil, hideous grin” and her eyes turned red) and (for a variety of reasons) the individual is thought to be in the grips of something otherworldly. The body has been taken over by an evil source and the mind cannot regain control – not without the help of a individual with great spiritual knowledge (in the Catholic Church, a priest who has been instructed on how to do an exorcism). The exorcism he/herself performs physical acts (such as sprinkling holy water, praying, etc.) while also asking for God to give them strength to intervene.
Pitting the mind against the body in this situation has a lot of issues. If the “possessed” individual isn’t actually possessed, then performing an exorcism probably won’t do much good (although it might be convincing enough to the individual, that they will cease whatever action that has been deemed out of the ordinary). Possession is seen at a body level – but if the issues are actually of a biological or psychological nature (such as Tourette’s, epilepsy or schizophrenia, which are disorders that are generally used to explain the actions of the “possessed”) then a complete misunderstanding of what is going on with the individual could occur. If the exorcist believes that God had intervened through him, then it’s possible that an exorcism could go beyond the traditional methods and put the possessed in danger. And in the case of the incident at Berry, all sorts of difficult situations arise when an RA on a religious-affiliated scholarship tries to exorcise a former student. But the guy believed he was doing the right thing – “I prayed the Holy Spirit would take over, and he did,” he said. To him, this explained what was occurring, how the body could act so unreasonably, and how (through faith) the mind could be reinstated to reign supreme.
I think it's very important to address the complications involving exorcisms that you mentioned. If one is considered possessed because they have a disorder that makes their body act in ways that are out of the mind's control, then what does the exorcist do when the symptoms do not cease? If the possessed has epilepsy, then no matter how much they pray for the person and train the mind to overcome the "evil" within it, the individual is not going to be able to stop being epileptic. What happens in these situations when the possessed physically cannot rid themselves of the "evil" within them because what is considered evil is a health problem?
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