You’ve got the Devil in ya
Does anyone else find it absurd that exorcism is making a comeback? Is there anything more useless? Humankind realized centuries ago that science and medicine could explain (and cure) more ailments than superstitious religious voodoo ever dreamed of. So why do we still have idiots practicing exorcism? And why do we still have idiots who go to get exorcised? That’s the problem with religion. Its emphasis on faith over reason and empiricism leads to ludicrous, lala-land thinking.
The most dangerous part of a resurgence of exorcism is all of the real treatment that sufferers won’t be getting because they’re wasting time narfing off with an exorcist. Is someone suffering from epilepsy, depression, or a mental illness? They don’t need medicine! What they need is to be told that the devil is inhabiting them, and for a “paltry” fee, he can be driven out! That’ll do the trick! And even better, think of all the children who will have the fear of God put into them when they’re told their body is inhabited by the beast himself! That won’t traumatize them in the least.
Exorcism is little different from Scientology in this regard. Maybe once Anonymous is done with Scientology, they can take on the sham of exorcism next? I’ll be cheering them on!
February 13th, 2008 at 05:15
The Bad Astronomer made a post discussing the harm in magical thinking: http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/02/12/whats-the-harm/
He links to a site called What’s The Harm: http://whatstheharm.net/index.html
February 13th, 2008 at 13:05
Thanks for the recommendation Jens! I read the Bad Astronomer regularly, but I hadn’t yet seen that post. I’ll have to remember to link that site in the future. One of the big reasons these harmful beliefs and practices flourish is because people think they’re harmless, but in the big picture, even the edge cases happen regularly, and next thing you know, thousands of people are dying unnecessarily each year because they believed in nonsense. So fighting the stupid beliefs isn’t just about me wanting to push my (truthful) views on them, it’s about helping people.
February 13th, 2008 at 20:22
While I agree with you that there is probably nothing beneficial from empirically false practices like exorcism, you should really spend some time looking at possession-based rituals in other cultures to understand that there are many facets of the human experience that standard psychotherapy and pharmacology can’t help or explain. (Note that I am not appealing to the supernatural here, although esoterica are of interest to me).
I highly recommend, if you can find it, a really remarkable film that was made of a Balinese possession ritual and play that was made nearly 80 years ago. It’s called Trance and Dance in Bali and was shot by Margaret Mead. Also Brazilian indigenous/syncretic practices. There is something there; perhaps it’s the same part of the brain that deals with deep meditation, but discounting these experiences entirely does not advance the very imperfect science of psychopharmacology at all.
February 13th, 2008 at 20:42
Seeing as how it’s a bit unlikely I’ll be able to get my hands on that film, could you explain what it shows in a little bit more detail? I don’t doubt that people can believe in something so fervently that it can affect them on a level that seems impossible to the outsider. But I think that’s all the “something there” that there is to it, unless you have any evidence otherwise as to how it’s significant in a larger context. Can tricking yourself into thinking you’re being possessed cure mental diseases? I give the medication the better shot.
February 14th, 2008 at 23:59
The film records a reenactment of an ancient epic, in which many of the characters are played in trance. Several of the actors took hours after its end to come back to a coherent state and disavowed knowledge of what they had done in the meantime. At one point, the witch character entrances an army of men come to destroy her, causing them to run their own swords into their chests (for whatever reason, their skin is not damaged even as they press fairly hard). It was fairly terrifying to watch, as all the players seemed fully convinced of their roles, playing with some sort of raw energy. We later watched a modern recording of the same story for comparison, played out in a modern city rather than a remote village, and the difference was stunning. What those villagers did was convincingly ‘real’; I can’t put it any other way.
My point is that there are portions of the human mind that often get roped off in modern society, although I am aware that a lot of work, e.g. with fMRI, is being done on “religious experiences” and the like. These are powerful things both metaphorically and physically, and the people who believe in them do see things empirically. It’s just that their burden of proof is different. You might say they have a massive confirmation bias they’re unaware of. Insulting them isn’t going to help, and denies some fundamental need that these services fulfill.
Oh, and for an effort to empirically examine the paranormal, you should really take a look at NIDS’ investigation of Skinwalker Ranch. NIDS was bankrolled by Robert Bigelow, the same guy behind the supposedly upcoming space hotel, and was an effort to fund real scientists to look into the anomalous.
February 15th, 2008 at 01:35
If the swords didn’t cut their chests, I’m going to say that it’s because, despite appearances, they weren’t actually pressing on the swords very hard. There’s no other explanation. You can’t have skin that magically resists sharp instruments.
As for the Skinwalker Ranch, I read the Wikipedia article. UFOs, ghosts, and Bigfoot? Oh c’mon, this is a joke, right? It’s like a “best of” kooky paranormal activities all in one location. Incidentally, I read a Wired article about Robert Bigelow and he’s nuts. The space hotel is a useful vector in which his nuttiness is being channeled. The paranormal claptrap, not so much.