Demon Possession

[Spontaneous Smile]

Ahahaha, actually I've been making myself sick over the idea. I guess you could say I'm afraid of getting possessed or being possessed. But what really defines possession?

Not gonna lie. I didn't think very much about this until I watched demon-possession movies (I wanted to scare the pants off of me, not make me anxious and sick) One of which was based on a true story. However, it wasn't proved whether or not the girl had a mental illness or was truly possessed. However, my question is this:

Why would God allow on of his Christian followers to be possessed, like the girl in the movie? There are too many confounding variables to know for sure. Because we only knew she grew up religious, but she might not have been really religious. Who knows? I've been told that once you're saved and accepted jesus, then you are protected from demons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anneliese_Michel

But who is to say who is possessed? We all sin- sure. But what takes it to the extreme?

[LoneWolfintheWind]

Possessed is when you cannot control your actions or react in the way you normally would, some times it can be a good thing like angelic or even demonic possession to save a life or help you in some sort of thing. but the Negative type of Possession usually only occurs when someone in a subconscious way weakens them self and allows a demon to feed on their fears and eventually use it to control every action and response they put out. the only way to cleanse yourself of this is to accept the demon as it is, just a power hungry lower spirit, and dont acknowledge the urges or fears it feeds on. so if you fear being possessed a demon will see it and find a way to manipulate you with that fear.
Be strong, I was possessed but attaining spiritual neutrality freed me from them.

[QuantumModulus]

"Demonic possession", in my opinion, is a cop-out for the extremely religious when they are confused by why humans participate in negative behaviors. There are some who believe that rebellious teenagers are "possessed" by evil spirits, when really it's them simply being predictable teenagers. There are others who believe that outbursts of violence or fits of convulsions are signs of demonic possession, when really it shows more signs of a serious medical condition than anything else. And, I think that people who consider themselves "possessed" for succumbing to chemical addictions are simply doing that: providing a crappy excuse for a simple human behavior that could have been avoided, but wasn't. I think it's time that we stop making bad excuses for our bad behaviors and start actively trying to reverse them.

Consider the link you gave -- Michel was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed with severe depression, and after a while without improvement, she began convincing herself that she was possessed. She then started taking anti-psychotic drugs, which she "may or may not have stopped taking", to prevent violent outbursts. Her physical (and mental) health continued to decline, and she eventually denied medical treatment after devoting herself to an extreme string of vigorous exorcisms -- after which she died of reasons directly related to her physical health. To me, there's very, very little that doesn't indicate that her condition was self-perpetuating, and almost solely attributed to the placebo effect.

Assuming that demonic possession is valid, and that it has true religious roots, for the purpose of argument -- if "God" truly is omnipotent and omniscient, then there is nothing in religious scripture to say that he doesn't have more power than the demonic forces themselves. If he doesn't have the power, then it doesn't fit with any definition of "God" that I know of. If he has the power and simply chooses not to act on what he sees, then he's malicious, which is contradictory to the benevolent god commonly believed by most modern religions. I don't see any good excuse for God's behavior here, to be completely honest. (And please, don't bring up the "It's a test of your faith" argument if you believe the story of Anneliese Michel. She was a devout Catholic and went through some pretty excruciating things.)

To the OP: you say that you hadn't thought about it very much at all until you started seeing movies made to scare people, and now believe yourself to be possessed, or at least fearful of it. The placebo effect is ringing loud and clear, to me, at least. I think you're making yourself worry about nothing at all. Best wishes.

[MadPoet]

Personally I don't believe in demon possession. I think the reason that people do believe in it is because it is mentioned in the bible, not because they have literal proof of it happening. It's the kind of thing where, even if it happens, you can't always be sure it is what you think it is. Personally I take the usage of the word "Demons" in the bible to be mental illnesses, things that plague one's mind. Some of the demonic behaviours described in the bible are actually symptoms of mental illnesses, such as talking to yourself or hallucinations, if I remember correctly. I think that being possessed is not actually by an actual demon, but by something that we would consider quite normal in society today. But as far as that head spinning and talking gibberish stuff goes, I don't believe it at all.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

To me it seems you saw some scary movies and now are self-identifying as a character in the movie. The horror from the movie seems instilled and together, it forms a placebo effect. Some branches of theistic Satanism warn about the risk of "possession" but not in the form of having your head literally spin off, rather it's that the invocations and rituals alter your behaviour in a negative way because you were probably too inexperienced to understand how they should be done.

For Michel, neither here nor there because it's speculated she had mental illnesses and was very devout in Christianity. Her "possession" could have stemmed from her mental state, as well as rationalizing through Christianity that demons took control of her. In my opinion, it's a mix of both: severe mental illness mixed with a very devout religious person and you get a religious-based idea fueled by her mental illness.

As to why god would allow one of his believers to be possessed, you should question whether the idea of having god's spirit inside of believers is possession as well. After all, the bible constantly says once you have accepted Christ and god, his spirit will guide you. It sounds very much like possession, only Christianity suggests it's not possession because possession is considered negative and Christianity views itself as positive. There are even claims of Christians embracing god to a point where they speak in tongues, which resembles Michel and other "demonic possessions", so what is the difference? In my view, there's no difference, it's just labeled differently but no matter how you label it, the idea of possession, to me is nonsense and archaic superstitions.

On a last note, consider that in the pre-Enlightenment era, there was very little knowledge about mental health and behaviour. Since everything was understood in terms of religion, deviant behaviour was considered to be due to demons. If parents raised their child with proper rearing yet the child was deviant, the child was blamed as being demonically possessed. In other words, people thought mental illnesses were actually demons.

[Sythan]

I doubt Demonic Possesion actually exists. I'm an Occultist, studied and practiced Theistic Satanism, and it all seems like a load of BS to me. It seems the only people who are ever possesed are Christians. I've never heared of a Buddhist being demonically possesed.

Even if it did, I think the Demons would be better off possessing a Priest or the Pope, rather than some random person.

[Digilodger]

Originally Posted by Sythan

I've never heared of a Buddhist being demonically possesed.

Many Christianity and and Buddhism beliefs overlap each other, including spiritual possession. Buddhism believes in spirit possession. And their equivalent of Christian's demonic possession is evil-spirit possession.

Buddhism also believes that shaman or those who have mastered the dark arts can use amulets and charms to control other people.

(And yes, I grow up in a Buddhism family. )

[Spontaneous Smile]

Lol you guys have made me feel a little better. I kind of figured that most of it could have to do with mental illnesses and people over reacting. But I think I really just needed to hear it from some one else.

I do tend to think a little too much and worry. Case in point, the fear of demons made me anxious and sort of brought back my ocd then I thought, "Oh no! What if I'm possessed!?" I think I'm over that now.

And good point The Man And XX Master; it kind of does sound like we allow ourselves to be possessed by God himself. I think the only thing that sets it apart from demonic possession is that the Lord generally leads you to do good in some form, while demons don't.

I think what scared me the most in the movie "Emily Rose" was that God had allowed Emily to be possessed, because he wanted the world to know that demons were real and in turn, meant he was real too.

However, the movie almost contradicts itself. If demons were real, and no religious methods were able to cleanse her, it might cause people to stop believing in a God.

Anyway. The movie was only loosely based on Michel. And the point of those movies is to scare you; the facts only matter so much to them.

[krstnrcksbtt]

I once learned in church that if you really are a firm believer in God that you can protect yourself from being possessed. I don't know for sure and I don't want to ever find out. That stuff scares the f-ck out of me.

[Cosmo]

There is no such thing as Demon Possession, just people with deep psychological issues and a stupid amount of religious faith.

That case is a weird one, but think about it - all those signs show deep psychological issues. If someone hadn't told you (Roman Catholic Church *cough cough that it must be AN EVIL DEMON, why would you think anything other than physiological issues?

Some people are just really messed up.

[JKmadu619]

Well, to be frank I believe that demons were just a way to describe terrible mental disorders before we had real knowledge of it. I'm a Christian, I somewhat believe demons are out there and can persuade people to do evil, but I do not think they can completely control you. It was just an easy way to explain the unexplainable hundreds of years ago.

- Justin

[Nostalgia]

Possession is when a spirit (can be good or bad spirit ) enters your body and for a period of time you become that person. The spirit will talk throw you, control what you do. And you can sometimes depending on the circumstances of their death feel their last few moments or days alive.

There is such a thing as demon possession - have you seen the film an american haunting (it's based on true events) A girl in this film got cursed by a witch or someone with some sort black magic which then meant since then a demon possessed her.

[Reverie.]

Demonic possession (or indeed possession of any kind) is really about opinions. Not everyone believes it and I suppose if you're sceptical then I don't blame you for not. Personally I believe it, but I wouldn't worry yourself over it. It's so rare that you ever hear of cases of demonic possession. Yeah, there are films about it, but those films represent such a small minority of the population that your chances of it are minute.

I assume also, that a demonic possession is one not done by Gods say so. It would be by the opposite, so Lucifer. I could be wrong. And obviously we have no solid proof it even occurs, so don't take what I say as fact. I'm a believer, but there are plenty of people out there who would be happy to argue against me.

Like I said, don't worry about it. They're just films, and often films over dramatise things and blow them out of proportion. Events are very rarely acted out in a realistic manor and very rarely true to life events.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by Safe-inside-my-head

Demonic possession (or indeed possession of any kind) is really about opinions.

This is one the most vague, ambiguous and meaningless sentences one can ever say because you can say every single idea in the world is about opinions. It's so broad, it has no meaning at all, completely useless.

Originally Posted by Safe-inside-my-head

I assume also, that a demonic possession is one not done by Gods say so. It would be by the opposite, so Lucifer. I could be wrong. And obviously we have no solid proof it even occurs, so don't take what I say as fact. I'm a believer, but there are plenty of people out there who would be happy to argue against me.

I'm curious, what is your rationale for why demonic possession is done by Lucifer or other beings that are opposite of gods? Please don't answer by literally saying it's just your opinion, I'm aware it's your opinion, hence why I'm asking for it.

[~Mr. Self Destruct~]

"Demonic possession" is an archaic Christian term for psychotic disorders, dissociative identity disorder and the effects that drug use can cause.
In other words, it doesn't exist. Most people in the modern world have come to that conclusion.

[Reverie.]

Originally Posted by The Man And XX Master

I'm curious, what is your rationale for why demonic possession is done by Lucifer or other beings that are opposite of gods? Please don't answer by literally saying it's just your opinion, I'm aware it's your opinion, hence why I'm asking for it.

It's what I've always read or heard about. Please, do correct me if I'm wrong as I'm up for learning about tihs. I did say I assume so, it's simply what I've been told.

[John 6:29]

I don't know where in the Bible it says we are protected from demon possession. I think it's just one of those things that Christians say because they've been told it. Anyways, I don't know why God would allow it. There are many things I don't know why God allows, or even causes. But then again, I'm incredibly content with how everything is because I know there is a purpose, even if I don't know that purpose. Prior to my salvation, before I had any real knowledge of the Bible, I remember waking up with sleep paralysis and apnea simultaneously. I remember the room was incredibly hot. And I heard a voice simply say, "You're mine. God cannot help you." My sleep paralysis broke off, the heat left, and shortly after I caught my breath. I have no idea why any of this happened, but I know that I'm not possessed -- though this sounds like it could have been one to me. Ironically, after this I became a follower of Christ (several months after). But I guess it's not really a possession, nor does it matter because I never really harmed myself. But this just reminded me of it for some reason, and I don't know why any of that happened. Either psychologically, nor spiritually, nor why God allowed it. But I'm sure there was a reason, if anything in progress to point me to Christ.

[Casey.]

I think you've watched one too many scary movies. "Demon" possession may or may not be really. I'm sure people can be possessed, but some of it really is related to mental illnesses or drugs. Also, exorcisms? They usually do more harm than good to those who are 'possessed'. In my faith, sometimes if you invoke the name of one of your Gods, especially if your Gods are the Norse Gods, they could jump into your body for awhile. But it's extremely rare and not really 'possession'. Usually you just come to really really drunk. I think if possession scares you, then maybe you should not watch those movies. They are too scary for me, anyway. And really, most of it is just for show. Everything in Hollywood is not always real, even if it's based on a true story.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by Safe-inside-my-head

It's what I've always read or heard about. Please, do correct me if I'm wrong as I'm up for learning about tihs. I did say I assume so, it's simply what I've been told.

So in other words, you have no rationale at all. If you're up for learning this, you should know why Lucifer or beings opposite to gods invoke demonic possession. I'm not sure what the reason is given that it's your view and if you want to learn, you should figure it out. You've just said you haven't asked or learned why this is the case from whomever told it you, which makes it difficult to believe you want to learn, otherwise you would have asked or attempted to research the answer.

[Beetbox]

Demonic possession is an archaic idea that has not been verified by any means. To me I feel the very fact that people are willing to perform exorcisms is not just ludicrous since there is no proof but it is also truly irresponsible. Take for instance Anneliese Michel who died after a string of exorcisms. It takes a person off of their medication and in her case she started to refuse food.

People have blamed murders on demonic possession which I find despicable. It is like saying sorry I murdered someone I was possessed you know how it is. If people have a scapegoat then they can justify the actions they take while letting blame lie elsewhere. Taking for example Michael Taylor.