In her article, Betty (2005: 13) recognizes
that evidence of evil spirits is voluminous and comes from many cultures and
sources, both ancient and modern. She highlights, for example, that a great
deal of Jesus’ ministry was devoted to exorcising ‘evil spirits’ or ‘demons’
from various subjects (Betty 2005: 13). Betty also acknowledges that, in today’s
society, exorcisms are commonplace and there is no place in the world where
they are unknown.
Despite the fact that demon possession and
exorcisms are recognised worldwide, the vast majority of people think that
spirits, at least the kind that oppress or possess us, are not real (Betty
2005: 14). Many link spirit possession with a diseased mind, such as the
schizophrenic mind. According to Betty (2005: 29), “the paranoid schizophrenic
mind becomes convinced of beliefs at odds with reality, hears voice that aren’t
there or sees images that exist nowhere in the mind.” However, there is
mounting evidence today that evil spirits do oppress and occasionally even
possess people. For instance, in India, earth-bound spirits are forcibly and
often spectacularly evicted from their victims by holy men. Additionally, in
the West, several prominent psychologists have opened their minds to the
possibility of ‘demonic’ oppression and participated in exorcisms. So, what is
to be our response to this evidence? Are evil spirits real or just
hallucinations of a sick brain? Should they be taken more seriously?
Betty (2005: 14) defines these aforementioned
evil or demonic spirits as “more or less intelligent beings, insensible to us,
with a will of their own who seem to bother or oppress us or, in rare cases,
possess our bodies outright, and with whom we can relate in a variety of ways.”
For example, Honwana (1997: 296) pronounces that, in Southern Mozambique, it is
commonly believed that when an individual dies and the body is buried, the
spirit remains as the effective manifestation of his or her power and
personality. In other words, whilst we are visible, subject to the law of
physics and have physical bodies, it may be possible that these spirits are
another kind of being, invisible and not subjected to the laws of physics
(Betty 2005: 19).
It can be argued that psychiatry need to react
to this incoming evidence of spirit intervention. Betty (2005: 13) agrees and argues
that “psychiatrists should question their materialist assumption that mental
illness is strictly a matter of an aberrant brain, carefully examine the
literature of possession, experiment to determine why exorcists and deliverance
ministers often succeed where psychiatry fails, and develop a more complete
inventory of techniques for healing the complete person.” What if spirits are
real and not just hallucinations of diseased brains? Is it time to accept their
existence in our world in terms of proper treatment and health?
Maybe it is time for psychiatry to make room
for, or even embrace, spiritual therapies such as exorcisms as an alternative
therapy in medical science (Betty 2005: 19). Perhaps we cannot ignore the
recent studies highlighting the very reality of spirit possession. To do this
may be ignorant and detrimental to some person’s health outcomes. If not now,
then in the coming future, psychiatry will have to redesign the curriculum of
medical schools and get about the business of healing all types of mental
illness – those that originate in the brain, the soul, and in a hostile
spiritual presence targeting the soul or brain of its victim.
References
Betty, S. (2005). The Growing Evidence for “Demonic
Possession”: What Should Psychiatry’s Response be? Journal of Religion and Health, 44 (1), 13-30
Honwana, A. M. (1997). Healing for peace: Traditional
healers and post-war reconstruction in Southern Mozambique. Journal of Peace Psychology, 3(3),
293-305.
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