| The idea of possession is as old as the Bible. Indeed, in Mark 5:2-16, this
is covered in some detail. And, in fact, some of our social conventions come
from this. Saying "God bless you!" to someone who sneezes comes from the idea
that when a person sneezes,his or her psychic defenses are down, and without
the blessing, a demon can enter into the person: the idea is as old as the Mid-
dle Ages, but the reason is unknown to most of us.
Some people are relatively defenseless, psychically, and it would be foolish
to discount the possibility of psychic possession. HOWEVER....
Some people thought ritual scourging was necessary to drive out the possessing
spirit, and a lot of good people got killed that way (somewhat on the order of
"We had to destroy this vikllage in order to save it."), since any resident
demons had a higher pain threshold than their hosts did.
If possession or obession is suspected, a clergyperson is the best first person
to contact. But please! Not a Cotton Mather!
Steve Kallis, Jr.
Afterthought: There are some foolish persons who _want_ to be possessed!
For them, there is little hope.
_SK
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| There are certainly cases in the history of psychiatry where
a mental illness has been cured by a spiritualist of some sort
or the other. (As far as I know, this may also be true for some
cases of physical illness.) Psychologists tend to attribute the
recovery to non-spiritual sources, but the bottom line is that
they're just trying to fit the facts in to what they know, and
their hypotheses are unproven.
<_Jym_>
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| I agree with Steve. If a person is ignorant of phychic protection (which I
believe is relatively easy to happen due to our basicly christian heritage)
then one may be influenced to some degree. I also think that we all need
some influence of the positive nature to foster our growth. We don't get
everything we need from mama and papa. Not even the schools or churches give
us what we really need. I believe that we can get positive help from the
other side of the veil. We have to be strong, persistant, and patient to get
this help tho'.
It would seem that if a person wanted to be obsessed, possesed or whatever,
to the opposite extreme that could be arrainged also.
There is a place for genuine mental illiness too. It seems that the medical
professions are unable to determine the differences between outside influences
and chemical unbalances.
My direct experiences with other entities is that they are attracted by raw
emotion (ie. fear/love). I think we have discussed this in another note but I
will venture some guesses anyway. I have found that a potient intent or will
is a most effective method of protection for me personaly. Ritual may help sol
idify the intent. Conversly, a lack of belief in the ritual may have negative
results.
To answer the question as best I can I think that both infestation and illness
are valid answers depending upon the individual cases.
Mikie, Co. Sp.
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| Can we add the additional qualifier of /invitational? Illnesses are
not all passive, nor are all possessions unacceptable to those who
are The Possessed. We have ample evidence of people inviting others
to fill them with rather less than the Holy Spirit on current PrayTV
where wealth is the holiest of all possible lights, the Midas Touch
the preferred healing.
- Boleslaw
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