Deliver us from evil: why we need to take exorcism seriously.
Prof Graham H Twelftree of London School of Theology separates the
Hollywood fiction from the real face of demonic
possession
Is there such a thing as demonic possession? In polite society, including
among many Christians, exorcism is not a topic of conversation. But despite
default scepticism toward spiritual matters, the topic of demonic possession
does occasionally catch the public’s imagination. The most famous example of
this is the 1973 film The Exorcist, which took over $400m at the box
office.
Often, it’s not until people have direct personal experience of the
demonic realm that they become convinced of its existence. Despite
directing The Exorcist, William Friedkin had never seen a
real-life exorcism. That changed last year when he was allowed to film the
ritual by the late Catholic exorcist Fr Gabriele Amorth. Writing in Vanity Fair, Friedkin said that when he
showed the footage to a panel of psychiatrists (including two of the world’s
leading neurosurgeons), they failed to attribute the activity to a medical
condition such as epilepsy. Friedkin explained, “I went to these doctors to try
to get a rational, scientific explanation for what I had experienced. I thought
they’d say, ‘This is some sort of psychosomatic disorder having nothing to do
with possession.’ That’s not what I came away with. Forty-five years after I
directed The Exorcist, there’s more
acceptance of the possibility of possession than there was when I made the
film.”
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