Obsession

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Obsession with the devil is an almost tangible evidence of the struggle between good and evil, in which the man believed from the earliest times. However, the exorcism of demons can not be attributed solely to medieval rituals: the Catholic Church still recognizes exorcism, if it is certain that the devil has really settled into a person.

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According to Christian beliefs, the most terrible tragedy is when Satan, the prince of darkness, takes possession of the body and soul of man. However, for other cultures, there are similar ideas about possible demons to prevail over a person. Thus, we tried to explain the incomprehensible changes in the mental and physical state of a person. In the past, the obsessive were people who suffered, for example, epilepsy, hysteria or schizophrenia.

Both in the Old and New Testament there are references to demons who bear unhappiness and threaten the health of a person or make him commit crimes. At the head of these dark forces is Satan (from the Hebrew word meaning "enemy"). He is considered the root cause of evil on earth and the enemy of God. In the Bible, Satan appears as one of the creatures created in the creation of the world, later becoming a fallen angel. The most beautiful and intelligent of the angels, driven by pride and arrogance, rebelled against the Creator and became the master of the kingdom of demons.

The study of some episodes from the Bible convinced the church fathers that Satan, or the devil, has a material form and a way to control the body and soul of man. The Bible says that Jesus Christ healed the possessed, casting out demons that dwell in them. In the centuries-old struggle against evil, priests often use the rite of exorcism (exorcism). And until now the Catholic Church is convinced of the beneficial consequences of this ritual.

God and his gloomy rival

The dualism of God and the devil is one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith. Its origins can be revealed in the teachings of the ancient Iranian prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), the founder of the religious current in the X-VI centuries BC. The book of holy scriptures, known as the "Avesta", describes the demon Archimonde (Ahriman), the enemy of the creator of the world and the sole supreme deity. Here, for the first time, the concept of opposition between good and evil was reflected. The idea of ​​force hostile to a single god was new and represented a challenge to the moral foundations of time. It influenced the religion of Judaism during the Babylonian captivity and then was inherited by Christianity.

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in the phenomenon of obsession and belief in world evil. This fascination began in 1973, when the screen came the film of American director William Friedkin "Exorcist", which caused heated controversy and gathered a huge audience around the world. The success of the film served as the impetus for the creation of a new genre in literature and cinematography, the theme of which was obsession with the devil.

Death during exorcism

Confidence that a person is possessed by the devil can lead to disaster. The tragedy occurred with Amy Bernie from New York in 1997. Her mother and grandmother convinced themselves that the girl was a devil. To drive out the impure, the women gave her a drug from a mixture of ammonia, cayenne pepper, vinegar and olive oil and began to beat her. The publication of the devil cost Amy life.

In 1998, a shocking statement was made by the Catholic priest Gabriel Amort, who, on instructions from the Pope, engaged in exorcism in the Roman diocese. Amort argued that he would receive several thousand requests for the exorcism of the devil, although after careful scrutiny, only some of the people who turned to him were subjected to this ritual. He noted the growing flow of such appeals from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The whole army of evil spirits

In 1988, the former chief exorcist under Pope John Paul II, Monsignor Corrado Balducci, derived a quantitative measure of the degree of Satan's influence on people. In total, there were 1,758,640,176 acts of exorcism. Despite this staggering figure, Balducci expressed confidence that only 15 of the 1000 cases dealt with the true obsession with the devil. According to his estimates, 40% of the clergy doubt the physical existence of Satan.

World evil

XVIII century in Europe. The Age of Enlightenment tore down all the mystical veils that enveloped evil forces, and more prosaic explanations for the phenomenon of obsession with the devil. Modern psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists are guided by scientific research conducted by the French neurologist Jean Martin Charcot, as well as the theory of psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. Experts consider the image of the devil as the desire of the subconscious to give a human face to the vices and evil of the modern world. Faced with the decline of protection, people find attractive religious ideas that lie beyond the boundaries of representations.

Most Christian theologians consider the devil to be a symbolic figure. Representatives of the Catholic Church insist on the materiality of Satan. In the eyes of the church, some forms of obsession can not be explained in terms of medicine and, in particular, psychiatry, and therefore they are the result of the devil's machinations.

A priest specializing in the exorcism of the devil is called an exorcist. Some exorcist priests can hold a special post. They strictly observe the ritual of exorcism, established by Pope Paul V in 1614 and revised at the end of the XIX century by Pope Leo XIII. According to this document, the presence of the devil can be judged by the peculiarities of the behavior of the person in which he has settled: a characteristic smell, disgust for religious relics, a sudden fluent speech in an incomprehensible language and an inhuman force that does not correspond to the physical state and age of a person.

In the ritual of exorcism, the imposition of hands, prayer, the presentation of the crucifixion are used. Procedures can lead a sensitive person into a shock state. For this reason, at the present time.

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