Anyone else been "excorcised"...?

This isn't an excuse to bash Christians... most are perfectly reasonable people. (Well, I hope so, I'm one.) But has anyone else been told that they need to be excorcised, or even had it done to them? I have some kind of recollection of it happening, but I'm not sure I was firing on all cylinders at the time... are we in danger of being taken advantage of when we're ill by "loonies"?

I've never been exorcised, but I went to a therapist who tried to convert me, and actually wrote a book that claims all mental illness is due to a disconnection with God. The title of her book that she gave me is Hell and Madness; Grace and Sanity: the true biblical basis for mental health. I felt violated, because I had seen her a few times before she pulled this on me. Needless to say, I was pissed.

no but I used a smudge stick to banish spirits from my house when I though my dead BF's ghost was there; My pdoc gave me the smudge stick and told me how to use it.

I'm sorry you had that happen to you, reader... and am glad that you didn't stay with that doctor. I hate the whole "blame the victim" mentality that so many have.

Yoda, that smudge stick was probably a crutch that helped you for a time when you were in recovery.

I've had it suggested more than once that I need to be excorcised, and I wondered how common it was.

This happened years ago, and out of curiosity I just googled her name. This is her website. She is the one who's crazy!

http://www.graceandsanity.org/aboutus.htm

Probably. I was grieving pretty badly for a very long time. Burned the shirt I was wearing when he died, stuff like that.

The only thing I never understood is how my little teddy bear moved. Only my son and I were there and neither of us moved it. The first time it was found moved I put it back but the second time I thought somebody/something wants it to be here and I didn't move it back. Very odd and disconcerting.

I was told needed an exorcism by a therapist once. I kind of feel like I am possessed sometimes...can you say psycho??? Anyway, I blew her off and found a new one. But I do believe that there are people out there truly possessed. I also feel that those people are rare. I believe that those suffering from personlity disorders get "misdiagnosed" by some professionals.

Every time I moved to a new place (long story short, I have moved more than 25 times as an adult) I would smudge with sage and incense. I wanted to cleansethe energy of the people who left the place before me, so that there would be a clean slate and bad things wouldn't happen to me. I used to think it pissed of the spirits and they would return eventually and drive me out by causing real world difficulties. Looking back, I can say that it was bipolar playing tricks on me, not spirits. But I do miss the smell of sage burning and the feeling of new hope upon moving into a new place.

I have discovered that we are all made up of energy that is contained in our "body bag". I believe there is some energy of lost loved ones "floating" around us constantly. My mother-in-law was very fearful when she died and it's almost as if I now hear my mother-in-law in my husband. We were the only family members present when life support was discontinued. Since that time, my husband has become someone I don't even know. He is severely depressed and has the same negative evaluation of life that she did. So, could it be an inherited mental illness or a fearful spirit just not ready to go visit someone else?

No one's ever suggested an exorcism to me but that may be because anyone who knows me knows I would fly off the handle about it.

This is slightly different but related to the smudging with sage. I have my house gridded with selenite (a protecting and cleansing crystal) to help keep bad energy out. Now, does it work or do I just feel better because it's there? I don't know. But it's there.

I also usually wear a selenite pendant around my neck. That I do believe works. I was in Best Buy one day and every time this sales guy got within 4-5 feet of me it felt like the selenite was burning me. I'd back up and it'd quit. When I got home I lifted up my shirt to look and there was a red burn mark on my chest.

I emailed my crystal lady and asked what was going on with that and she said she'd only heard of that happening, never actually known someone it happened to. She said he must have had energy so bad around him that it set my crystal off; the burning feeling was there to get me to back off, protecting me from whatever it was that was so bad about him.

The thing that most annoys me is that the people who "excorcised" me then went to describe my case as a success, and turn my story into a trophy, and never did any actual follow up to see how I was doing after they'd traumatised me. I certainly wasn't any better afterwards, and I consider such things to be a form of assault. Imagine the impact being told you have a demon has on someone who's already hallucinating and paranoid?

mgran!!! You summed up here exactly what makes me so angry about such things! The place I used to live there were a lot of zealots (might be a bit too strong a word, but just barely if it is...) and saw this behavior over and over and over again. Not necessarily with exorcism, but the whole forcing one's beliefs on another, the use as a trophy and leaving it at that. It was hard to come to any other conclusion but that they were only really after self-aggrandizement --though they would vehemently deny this-- all evidence pointed to the contrary. My observation was that they were people desparately in need of someone giving them all the answers in black and white so that they never needed to really examine their own behavior and its effect on the other person. Being surrounded by others who also were in denial of the effect of their actions only reinforced it. Ahhhh, but always cloaked in words that justified it...

Lest anyone think that I'm only talking about religion, I'm not. The behavior is alive and well in many realms...To wit, reader, yup, relate to this. Same tactic, different context:
I had this experience with a midwife. It wasn't long before she was pushing books with outdated and just plain false information designed to scare me into her way of thinking. It all comes down to one thing. Pushing an agenda. Fortunately, I recognized it quickly and went elsewhere (to a wonderful nurse practioner. Give and take, informed, balanced with a recognition of the importance of flexibility. No agenda. It was refreshing.)

So many hugs to both of you and for all others with similar experiences...

Thank you Innerzone for understanding. I'm glad you got good care in the end for you and your baby.

On a different topic, did anyone ever see the episode of Frasier where Daphne is pregnant, and she and Niles hire a "doula"? Eventually Daphne just cracks in the face of all the unwarranted advice, and turfs the doula out of the house. Made me laugh anyway... "Niles, stop acting pregnant. You're a man."

Thanks, mgran. It's something I've thought about a lot and glad you brought it up. That baby is now 18... While so much of the past is a blur and a fog, I can still 'see' the inside of her house, and where those books were...

I didn't see that episode (didn't watch it much in the later years). You're right--that is funny. (Reminds me...my mother was not welcome at the birth-- it ended up being induced, so there was no time surprise -- but I'd've kicked her out if she'd "known better" and decided to show up, that's for sure! Rarrrr!

There is helping, then there is imposition. Not the same, eh? That's something else these experiences have in common.

My ex mother in law also "imposed" her own expectations on me when I was pregnant. She'd had trouble breastfeeding, and found the thought of it distasteful anyway. So when I had a present, three days before the birth, of a set of bottles, sterilisers and formula milk I was very upset. She told me my "breasts were too big" and they'd never fit in the baby's mouth.

As it happened, I had no trouble feeding him... but the anxiety generated by her attempts to "help" was just awful. Again, a lot of behaviour is driven by the need to prove our own agendas. I have to be very careful that I don't do this myself... it's an inbuilt human thing I suppose, and it's hard to see when we do it. I hope I'm getting better.

Most of the Christians who are into exorcism are just loons themselves. I believe that Jesus was able to cast out demons but I refuse to believe that those of us with mental illness are possessed and in need of exorcism.

I am a Christian who is offended by those who claim to be able to exorcise and then have no documentation on successes. They are doing more to drive people away from God by claiming they can do something in God's name without documented results.

I believe God can heal us from our illnesses but that is certainly not the same as exorcism by some fringe Christians.

If you are open to God I hope you can find a church and support system that will love you exactly the way you are. I have been blessed to find such a place and it is making life much more bearable.

Peace,
Mac

Hi Mac,
I have found such a church, thank you for asking.

I agree with you that those who are mentally ill aren't possessed by demons (though sometimes we may feel as though we are.) In fact, Luke (who was a doctor) clearly differentiates between the two groups, as does Matthew.

You've got to wonder if these "excorcists" actually read the Bible.

click like!

Omg you know what? I am from US but I'm out of the country, I've tried a few therapists here but didn't like them that much.

So, anyway, I was trying to find therapy online. They have some through skype but its very expensive so I tried to look for free stuff.

I found a couple of sites that give free counselling over chat, emails, etc... but then I found out they were "christian therapy" like healing yourself through god and christianity (i'm not christian).

I turned my back around, not because i'm not christian, but because I'd like to get therapy that's "logical" and applies to human and not something supernatural, no matter the religion.

I mean dont' get me wrong, i'm not anti-religion.. . but its not an excuse for not getting real therapy.

A lot of times, I feel people get addicted to cults coz they're lost in life. And man! are cults manipulative, i tell ya! (ok, nm, i think i got off topic )

But yeah.. that's my thoughts on religion based therapy. UNLIKE!

I do consider myself Christian (very mainstream), but not actively by any means. More of a cultural touchpoint.
Your post reminded me of finding the T where I used to live. There was a LOT of that. In talking to one who didn't list that way, it was the very first thing I asked, because I didn't want (or need, I was in very bad shape at the time) any stealth surprises, you know?
Hear ya on that, Distressed!

The NHS vetoes "religious therapies", if you want a Christian (or Muslim for that matter) therapist you have to go private, or via your local diocese (or whatever the Islamic is for diocese.)

So at least I'm not in danger of running into religious zealots. Apparently...

When I was wildly manic, a pentecostal church I went to had elders that performed an exorcism on me. They also convinced me to go off my meds.
Since then I have encountered a similar attitude of MI being demons citing the passage where Jesus cast out Legion.
I don't know what to make of it all except to tell you I threw up during the exorcism, but was still wildly manic afterwards.
I don't believe that it is a treatment for MI, and I don't believe Jesus means for people to be exorcised the way He did it in the Bible.

Sounds like what happened to me... I didn't throw up, but had some kind of hysterical physical response. I wasn't on meds at the time, but I was manic afterwards. Strange that at the same time they were telling their congregation that they'd cast out demons I was off buying a bottle of wine to drink on an empty stomach.

I'm not muslim either mgran..
But yeah heard about churches offering support to people who are distressed but I didn't know that it was also religion based therapy. i never knew such existed before i came across these sites!

That sorta happened to me by my grandma when I was a kid;

In the 2nd grade, apparently my teacher told my grandmother that I had been manipulating the class. So my extremly but hyprocritly religous grandmother decided that she was gonna pray it outta me,
these "evil spirits".

Looking back on it, now that I am older, I can see the damage
that it did to me. We are all taught that "evil spirits" can only get into you if you're sinning, being bad, playing with ouiji boards or whatever. Come on granny, 2nd grade? I must have felt like I was the worst kid on the face of the earth, that I was such a bad kid. And, it was the only time she ever sat down on the bed and "talked" with me ("god" really though...I wished she was talking to me.)

So she would sit there and ask the evil spirit(s) lol, to leave, and I would laugh. She said that was a sign of them coming out. What a dumbass! I was laughing because I was nervous about being in trouble, feared the "wrath of god", and with no ****ing clue how to identify what the hell I actually did to get the "demons" in the first place, I felt so hopeless as to ever be seen as good again. aarrrgghhh.

She did it again when I was older as well..still really angry about it..so glad this thread was here lol.

That's what exorcists are conveying to these poor people, that they are so evil that a demon would inhabit them. Even if the bible does not say that, what do people think when they hear someone has a demon? That they must be evil? WTF!!!! Just sayin' man.

What I noticed about "connecting with god" at summer camp....all these poor kids go to there counselors to pray to be forgivin of "sins" that are their ****ing parents fault! Man, it just breaks my heart. If exorcism works, it was likely nothing more than a placebo and a chance at coming out of everything with a clean slate and an explaination of poor behaviors. Not cool lol, I am sooo angry about this.