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'''Demonic possession''', in ] belief systems, is a form of ] whereby certain malevolent extra-dimensional entities, ]s, gain control over a mortal person's body, which is then used for an evil or destructive purpose. Unlike in ] or other benign forms of possession, the subject has no control over the possessing entity and so it will persist until forced to leave the victim, usually through a form of ]. |
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Many cultures and ]s contain some concept of demonic possession, but the details vary considerably. Some cultures, in particular the ] also believe that demons can also possess animals, plants, deceased persons or inanimate objects. |
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== Demonic possession in History == |
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The oldest references to demonic possession are from the ], who believed that all diseases of the body and mind were caused by "sickness demons" called gid-dim . The ]s who practised exorcisms in these nations were called ashipu (sorcerer) as opposed to an asu (physician) who applied bandages and salves . |
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Many ] ]s contain prayers to certain gods asking for protection from demons, while others ask the gods to expel the demons that have invaded their bodies. |
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Nevertheless there are no descriptions of specific punishments against possessed persons as it happened later many times in Christian societies. ] cultures also believe in demon possession and ]s (witch doctors) perform exorcisms too; in these cultures often diseases are attributed to the presence of an evil ] or demon in the body of the patient. |
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Demon possession became a plague among Christians; exorcisms and ]s were performed on persons allegedly possessed; many mentally ill people were accused of being demon-possessed and killed. The ] speaks about some exorcisms that can be done in different cases. In ], animals were also believed to be able of being possessed; during the ], hundreds of ]s, ]s, and other animals were slain because of the idea that they were either an ] of a demon or possessed by one. |
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== Demonic possession in the Bible == |
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According to the : |
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:"In the ] we have only one instance, and even that is not very certain. We are told that "an evil spirit from the Lord troubled" ] ({{bibleverse|1|Samuel|16:14}}). The Hebrew need not imply a personal influence, though, if we may judge from ] (Ant. Jud., VI, viii, 2; ii, 2), the Jews were inclined to give the word that meaning in this very case. In ] times, however, the phenomenon had become very common." |
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The New Testament mentions several opportunities in which ], believed to be these ] responsible for those illnesses. |
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* {{bibleverse||Matthew|4:23-25}}: Demon-possessed persons are healed by Jesus (also {{bibleverse||Luke|6:17-19}}). |
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*{{bibleverse||Matthew|7:21-23}}: Many will drive out demons in Jesus' name (also {{bibleverse||Mark|16:17}}; {{bibleverse||Luke|10:17}}; {{bibleverse||Acts|5:16}}; {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|8:7}}). |
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*{{bibleverse||Matthew|8:14-17}}: Jesus healed many demon-possessed (also {{bibleverse||Mark|1:29-39}}; {{bibleverse||Luke|4:33-41}}). |
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*{{bibleverse||Matthew|8:28-34}}: Jesus sent a herd of demons from two men into a herd of about ''two thousand'' pigs (also {{bibleverse||Mark|5:1-20}}; {{bibleverse||Luke|8:26-39}}, both referring to only one man). |
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* {{bibleverse||Matthew|9:32-34}}: Jesus made a demon-possessed and mute man speak, the ] said it was by the power of ] (also {{bibleverse||Mark|3:20-22}}). |
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*{{bibleverse||Matthew|10:1-8}}: The ] given the authority to drive out evil spirits (also {{bibleverse||Mark|3:15}}; {{bibleverse-nb||Mark|6:7}}; {{bibleverse-nb||Mark|6:13}}; {{bibleverse||Luke|9:1}}; {{bibleverse-nb||Luke|10:17}}). |
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*{{bibleverse||Matthew|11:16-19}}: "this generation" said that ] was possessed by a demon (also {{bibleverse||Luke|7:31-35}}). |
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* {{bibleverse||Matthew|12:22-32}}: Jesus healed a demon-possessed blind and dumb man (also {{bibleverse||Luke|11:14-23}}; {{bibleverse-nb||Luke|12:10}}; {{bibleverse||Mark|3:20-30}}). |
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* {{bibleverse||Matthew|12:43-45}}: Jesus told an allegory of nasty spirits coming back home, that is to the human body where they have lived before (also {{bibleverse||Luke|11:24-26}}). |
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* {{bibleverse||Matthew|15:21-28}}: Jesus expelled a demon from the body of the daughter of a ] woman (also {{bibleverse||Mark|7:24-30}}). |
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* {{bibleverse||Matthew|17:14-21}}: Jesus healed a lunatic by driving out a demon from him (also {{bibleverse||Mark|9:14-29}}; {{bibleverse||Luke|9:37-49}}). |
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* {{bibleverse||Mark|1:21-28}}: Jesus expelled a nasty spirit from a man (also {{bibleverse||Luke|4:31-37}}). |
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*{{bibleverse||Mark|9:38-40}}: A non-Christian is seen driving out demons in Jesus' name (also {{bibleverse||Luke|9:49-50}}). |
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*{{bibleverse||Mark|16:9}}: Jesus had driven seven demons out of ] (also {{bibleverse||Luke|8:2}}). |
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* {{bibleverse||Luke|7:21}}: Many people are cleansed from evil spirits by Jesus. |
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* {{bibleverse||Luke|13:10-17}}: Jesus expelled a spirit of disease from the body of a woman on the ]. |
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*{{bibleverse||Luke|13:31-32}}: Jesus continued to cast out demons even though ] wanted to kill him. |
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*{{bibleverse||Luke|22:3}}: ] entered into ] (also {{bibleverse||John|13:27}}). |
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*{{bibleverse||John|7:20}}: A "crowd of Jews" that wanted to kill Jesus said he was demon-possessed. |
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*{{bibleverse||John|8:48-52}}: "The Jews" said Jesus was a ] and demon-possessed. |
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*{{bibleverse||John|10:20-21}}: Many Jews said Jesus was raving mad and demon-possessed, others said he was not. |
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*{{bibleverse||Acts|5:3}}: Satan filled the heart of ]. |
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*{{bibleverse||Acts|5:16}}: The Apostles healed those tormented by evil spirits. |
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*{{bibleverse||Acts|8:6-8}}: At the teaching of ] in ], evil spirits came out of many. |
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*{{bibleverse||Acts|8:18-19}}: ] offered to buy the power of ]. |
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*{{bibleverse||Acts|10:38}}: ] said Jesus healed all who were under the power of the ]. |
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* {{bibleverse||Acts|16:16-24}}: ] and Silas were imprisoned for driving a future-telling spirit out of a slave girl. |
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*{{bibleverse||Acts|19:11-12}}: Handkerchiefs and aprons touched by Paul cured illness and drove out evil spirits. |
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*{{bibleverse||Acts|19:13-20}}: Seven sons of ] attempted to drive out evil spirits by saying: "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." But because they did not have faith in Jesus, they were unsuccessful and were actually driven from that house by the possessed. |
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*{{bibleverse||Revelation|18:2}}: The ] is a home for demons, evil spirits and unclean birds. |
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] contains also a number of references to people coming under the influence of the Holy Spirit ({{bibleverse-nb||Acts|1:8}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|2:4}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|2:17-18}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|2:38}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|4:8}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|4:31}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|6:3-5}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|7:55}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|8:15-19}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|8:39}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|9:17}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|10:19}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|11:12-16}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|11:28}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|13:9}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|16:6-7}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|19:2-6}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|20:23}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|21:11}}, {{bibleverse-nb||Acts|23:8-9}}) which is believed to be a good thing in contrast to demonic influence. |
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== Demonic possession in Christianity == |
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Despite its widespread currency, including traditional use among Christian writers, the expressions "demonic possession" or "possessed by demons" are, according to some, problematic and controversial from a Biblical perspective. Despite English language translation tradition, they say, the Bible never refers to people as being possessed by demons. The main ] expressions referred to demonic influence are: |
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# 'to be demonized' (daimonizomai) - this is the most frequent expression. |
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# 'having a demon' (echon daimonion) - note it is the person who possesses the demon, not the demon who possesses the person.<ref> Murphy, Ed. 1996.The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Rev. Ed., p.51 </ref> |
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Certainly the language of "possession", like other mistranslations, has gained a life of its own, as is reflected in the title of this article. Murphy comments on the traditional language of "possession": "Fortunately, the practice of using these terms is now in the process of correction because of renewed historical-contextual studies of Scripture and renewed experience with the demonized."<ref> Murphy, Ed. 1996. The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Rev. Ed., p.50 </ref> Some allow the term "possession" but restrict its use only for the most extreme cases, which are thought to be extremely rare. <ref> MacNutt, Francis. 1995. Deliverance from evil Spirits: a practical manual. Grand Rapids: Chosen Books. p.71 </ref> |
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It must also be pointed out, however, that despite these assertions about the language of Scripture, the Bible does speak of those who are "demonized" as actually being under the control of a demon (rather than merely being, for instance, mentally ill). For instance, at one point Jesus drives out a group of demons (who refer to themselves as "Legion" because of their great number) from a man. The demons plead with Jesus and ask him to send them into a herd of pigs. Jesus does so, the pigs go wild, and they charge into a lake and die, while the man who was possessed is returned to normal and even asks to become a follower of Jesus. It is clear from this example that the Bible speaks of real demons (as demonic, personal entities) who "demonize" human beings (]). |
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Many mainstream ] ]es, particularly in ], reject the concept of demons entirely, instead supporting the position that supposed demon possessions are in fact a ] of ].{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Churches that accept demonization still may acknowledge that prudence must be taken in discerning between demonization and mental illness. The literal view of demonization is still held by a number of Christian denominations. Official ] doctrine affirms that demonic possession and other lesser "extraordinrary demonic activity" (as opposed to "ordinary demonic activity", i.e. tempting human beings) can occur. However, the Church asserts that care must be taken to discern whether a case is indeed demonic or is merely a matter of mental illness. Catholic ]s of a possessed person can occur only under the authority of a ] and in accordance with strict rules. It should be noted, however, that other lesser exorcisms meant more to protect from demonic influence in general (rather than free one from possession) also occur during ] and in other cases (such as the blessings of certain medals) (s1673 '']'',). |
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A great deal of controversy surrounds the book ] originally published in 1912. The original edition is long out of print. Over the years various publishing houses have produced abridged and pseudo-unabridged editions which have largely eliminated the original thrust of the book as a resource to the Christian faced with combating demon influences. |
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The concept of demon influence in Christianity was similar to that of Jewish belief. In the New Testament Jesus is reported to have encountered people who were demonized and to have driven the "evil spirits" out of these demoniacs. In the ], ] asserted that demons entered the bodies of humans to use them as if they were theirs, and also proposed that the same could happen with animals, expelling a demon from his camel to prove his theory. In the ], Gregory the Great (later ]) wrote about a nun that was oppressed by a demon that penetrated her body via a lettuce she had eaten. |
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Later, in the Middle Ages, a list of symptoms required to confirm demonic oppression was carefully prepared: |
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# The ability to curse/blaspheme in languages unknown to the person. |
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# The ability to find secret things, read the mind, and ] future happenings. |
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# The ability to make physical efforts abnormal for that person. |
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# The act of spitting or vomiting every object the demons would have made the person swallow. |
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Other symptoms occasionally listed include: |
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# Fear and/or hatred of holy objects. |
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# The inability to say the word "Christ". |
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Normally, only one of these symptoms was enough to determine demonization. It was said by people of that time that oppressed persons had an ugly and terrible aspect, wrathful eyes, bluish lips, foam coming off their mouth; their body was almost permanently shaking, when they spoke their tongue came abnormally out, their speech consisted mainly in ]s and ], and they were able to imitate animal sounds as well as to speak with human-like voices with a strange sound and a different pitch of theirs. According to ] ]s demonization is involuntary and allowed by ] to test a person (for more details about God's tests on persons see ]). Involuntary demonization according to these theologians, cannot be negated because this would imply the negation of the cases mentioned in the New Testament (12, some of them repeated in more than one ]) and, by extension, the veracity of it. Voluntary demonization can be also mentioned, favored by drugs, alcohol and/or frantic dances, like those of certain ancient cults (i.e. the ]s), still practiced in some Shamanic societies, and alleged to be also practiced by ]es during their ]s. Another form of voluntary oppression is that in which a person offers his/her body to be influenced by a demon to serve as a ] among him/her and the other attendants to the reunion. |
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== Demonic possession in Medicine == |
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Demonic possession is not a valid ] or medical diagnosis recognized by either the ] or the ]. Those who profess a belief in demonic possession have sometimes ascribed the symptoms associated with ]es such as ], ], ], or ] to possession. There is, however, a mental disease called ] or ]. This is a ] in which the patient believes that he or she is possessed by one or more demons. |
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From another point of view, those who accuse others of being demon-possessed have to be mentioned too. In cases like those of the witches of ], or the nuns who accused father ], a ] takes place, involving more than one person "contagiously" convinced of that "truth". In particular cases (sometimes a small number of persons, e.g., some members of a family or a small group of friends, but generally one person) the accusation of demon possession is caused because of the diseases above-mentioned or the phenomenon of collective hysteria. Another case that is necessary to mention is that of ]; simulation is generally considered a psychological alteration of the human behaviour rather than a psychiatric disease, but there are in Medicine cases of simulators mentally ill that act by ]. It was common the case of children and teenagers accusing people of having bewitched them and feigning to be demon-possessed, and later apologising for that; unfortunately, due to the processes carried out by the religious tribunals, generally those innocents had already lost their lives, and that was the cause of many of those apologies: the feeling of being guilty, or ]. There were several cases of simulation in England, most of them between ] and ], until accusations made by children were prohibited in ]; there were cases of simulation in France and America too; it is thought that the collective hysteria that generated the accusation against ] was started by a case of simulation. It rests to say that a person easy to influence can be convinced by third parties of being demon-possessed. |
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Medicine can explain some aspects of the "symptoms" shown by those persons allegedly possessed; it is known that "supernatural strength" is common in some cases of insanity (], ]s, etc.). |
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== Demonic possession in Fiction == |
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The theme of demon possession has been by far better exploited by cinema than literature. Maybe the most known work on the subject is the 1973 film '']'', based on the ], which portrays a typical mediaeval case of demonic possession in which the victim shows all required characteristics to confirm the status of possessed. This was later satirised in 1990 by '']''. '']'' (1999) shows another form of demonic possession suggested by ]. |
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Possession (taken seriously) is central to the recent TV series '']''. The TV series ] has also explored themes of demonic possession, most recently in the second season episode ]. |
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==Notes== |
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<div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;"> |
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<references /></div> |
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== See also == |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* (Alien) ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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==External links== |
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* Cotton Mather's widely-cited report on the demonic possession of Elizabeth Knapp of Massachusetts (1701) |
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* When Johann Christoph Blumhardt (1805-1880), a 19th-century pastor from the Black Forest area of southwestern Germany, agreed to counsel a tormented woman in his parish (Gottliebin Dittus), all hell broke loose - literally. |
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* |
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* |
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* Andrew Lang, , ''The Making of Religion'', (Chapter VII), Longmans, Green, and C°, London, New York and Bombay, 1900, pp. 128-146. |
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* Jessie Penn-Lewis & Evan Roberts (The Original and Completely Unabridged Edition less graphics) |
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