Exorcism needed by a friend near me

Barleyfields

That’s your opinion BlueBelle (about ghosts). Some would beg to differ, based on experience.

😄😄😄.

Outline the scientific evidence and I will give this nonsense some credence.

But you can’t, and so I won’t!

It is almost 300 years since The Enlightenment for heavens sake.

One can only speak from one’s own experience and the related experiences of people one knows and trusts, Whitewavemark.

There is no way that this would stand up to any form of scrutiny.

Whitewavemark2

It is almost 300 years since The Enlightenment for heavens sake.

Well, I thought so too, but I am beginning to wonder.😀

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio …

Concerning mental illness and exorcism, I asked a priest to do an exorcism for a friend who was clinically bipolar and who was desperate for help--any help.

The priest refused .He was not permitted by psychiatrists to perform exorcisms on clinically ill persons. The reason being that mentally ill persons struggle to keep their reason an ghosts and hauntings are unreasonable.

I agree, Whitewavemark. Even if body and mind/soul can exist as separate entities , there is no way for disembodied mind/soul to affect physical bodies such as houses, furniture, or human beings.

However please don't let the light of reason put any of you off. I love ghost stories especially when they purport to be true.

Barleyfields, which alternative is the more probable

* there are ghosts that haunt or

* people misinterpret the evidence of their senses

NotSpaghetti

I'm surprised that the priest didn't offer a blessing to be honest though VelvetVinyl

They usually do if someone asks.

Honestly haven’t heard of any priests still trained to do this. As others have said, mental illness needs to be investigated.

Barleyfields, Shakespeare needed a ghostly dead father for the purpose of the plot of Hamlet. Hamlet was a story, not evidence.

Velvet Vinyl, hallucinations are not necessarily connected with mental illness, Bereaved people commonly hallucoinate

Bereaved people commonly hallucinate. Hallucinations occur during life threatening pathological states but hallucinations are often therapeutic during grief and mourning.

Hallucinations are effects of sleep disturbances too.

Do you really think I don’t know that Caleo? Do you really think I am offering a few words from Hamlet as evidence?

Caleo

Velvet Vinyl, hallucinations are not necessarily connected with mental illness, Bereaved people commonly hallucoinate

Bereaved people commonly hallucinate. Hallucinations occur during life threatening pathological states but hallucinations are often therapeutic during grief and mourning.

Hallucinations are effects of sleep disturbances too.

I suppose so. I’m not arguing that. They can happen with a lot of things, for instance dementia.

Barleyfields, I did wonder how a quotation from Hamlet ,a story composed by a supreme wordsmith , could be relevant
to the question of the objective existence of ghosts .

I am sure that exorcisms were effective among premodern cultures of belief, and where priests had a lot more authority than they have today.

According to the vicar I mentioned above, exorcisms (of buildings, not people) can be very effective. He was an interesting and learned man with experience of these matters which I doubt many, if any, of us has.

VelvetVinyl

Honestly haven’t heard of any priests still trained to do this. As others have said, mental illness needs to be investigated.

The Church of England has clergy in every diocese who are trained as Deliverance Ministers, (Exorcists).
Exorcism is rarely undertaken and then only after long and careful investigation, usually by a team, not just a single priest acting alone.

Some teen boys inc. Dbro at his school (a boarding school housed in some very old buildings) started messing around with an ouija board. They didn’t think anything at all had happened, but a couple of younger boys were soon very frightened by whatever they’d suddenly started to see.

Since it was a cathedral school, the bishop was asked to come and perform an exorcism.
End of problem.

Aldom

VelvetVinyl

Honestly haven’t heard of any priests still trained to do this. As others have said, mental illness needs to be investigated.

The Church of England has clergy in every diocese who are trained as Deliverance Ministers, (Exorcists).
Exorcism is rarely undertaken and then only after long and careful investigation, usually by a team, not just a single priest acting alone.

Hi Aldom
,
Yes I’m aware how it’s done, with 2 priests after investigation. I’m just not sure if there are priests here in the states who still do it, probably are, but I’m sure it’s very rare.

Having experienced it several times beginnjng in childhood -I certainly believe that there are unquiet spirits ..
Some are curious and playful and some are frightening and malevolent.
If they are the latter I'd appeal to the minister of another church for help .
Failing that write to the Bishop of your diocese.

Physics can provide indisputable evidence that there is not and never has been spirits of any sort.

Everything else is I’m afraid poppycock.

VelvetVinyl I hadn't realised that you are in the USA.
I'm a clergy wife, so I'm familiar with the CofE.

Witzend, your anecdote about a school that arranged an exorcism is rather evidence that religious schools should be abolished.

It's one thing for a cleric to administer an exorcism on behalf of an elderly lady with a fixed idea, but quite another thing to countenance an exorcism for children who are still capable of learning.