A psychiatrist's take on demonic possession (pyramid, light, spirits)

[RogueMom]

Really? I mean Really ? Who can even question whether demonic possession exists? Father's killing their innocent families, mother's shooting and killing daughters, random attacks on people daily, including even small innocent school children, people so high they are eating faces off other people, thugs killing innocent law enforcers and threatening their families, then protesting when the rule of law is attempted, people called haters when they question borders open to whomever chooses to implant themselves in our once-great country whether they hate us or not, people whose religions don't condone sexual perversion condemned for their beliefs in a country that is supposed to embrace religious "freedom".

The Devil. Alive and well. And, unfortunately, seemingly it seems, winning.....

A couple of pathetic, filthy rich, self-serving nuts running for President of the highest office in the "civilized" world, a country that was once God fearing, God loving, and the most respected over all others. Haven't seen too many bumper sticker this time around, have you?

We are so relieved when such hideous headlines disappear from our home pages, aren't we?

If we that are believers in the Bible are true believers, we understand that just as we don't question that there is a God, neither do we question that there is an evil and dark force that exists as well. And exist it does. Daily.

[ocpaul20]

f we that are believers in the Bible are true believers, we understand that just as we don't question that there is a God, neither do we question that there is an evil and dark force that exists as well. And exist it does. Daily.

No, it does not exist. Only our interpretation of it all and the actions performed by others. These are processed and filtered according to our beliefs, culture, and education.

Demons, angels, good, evil are all very human characteristics and have certain religious and moral issues too.We cannot even get along with and understand different Earthly cultures (East/West, etc) so how could we ever understand and live with a being which has been brought up on a different planet in a different environment under a different culture and educational system? Now I can understand why the government report on whether we should be told of ETs, advises that we should not be told.

Just imagine a being which looks like a 10-12 foot long ant or beetle which has intelligence greater than ours. Now tell me whether we would consider that being to be evil and bad? Of course we would. Would that being have the same morals, the same beliefs, the same biology as we do? I can imagine we would want to go blast it out of this world and into the next or possibly back from where it came.

Now just imagine a Artificial Intelligence computer in 50 years time. It would consider us humans as a total waste of space and not worth keeping. We all know what happened when the Microsoft Tay AI bot was let loose on the internet to learn about human behaviour and to modify itself to our likeness. It turned into a racist, people-hating 'evil' 'demon' due to the biog data database and produced responses which many agreed were not what we wanted.
Washington Post The Chinese bot called Xiaoice fared a little better however, possibly because the culture is different.

We are at the junction point where AI is about to replace humans and when it does in possibly less than 50 years, we better watch out because it will be too late after the AI computers have learned how to replicate and learn from us. There is so much data out there in the form of forums and chat websites that we cannot go back in time to sanitize the conversations and responses we originally gave. All these will come back to haunt us I suspect.

[Old Guard]

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by Lodestar

"An old Ukrainian proverb warns, 'A tale that begins with a beet will end with the devil.'

See! If it's a Ukrainian proverb. It must be true.

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

See! If it's a Ukrainian proverb. It must be true.

Ukrainians don't exist. Source: Putin.

[auntieannie68]

Originally Posted by Old Guard

Just because someone says what you want to hear does not mean they are more intelligent than other people.

Perhaps one of you could clarify what evil really is?

just because you do not feel as other posters do does not give you the right to challenge and ask for others to prove to you something you do not believe in---why do you feel the need to challenge a complimentary post?

it is not what i want to hear; it(poster's)opinion is what i feel is true

[auntieannie68]

Originally Posted by Lodestar

I, too, retired from working in the mental health field and wrestled with this question all my working life. (Well, I had it all figured out when I started. By the time I had retired I had seen a lot of contradictions!)


I worked with people who had done unspeakably evil things but ultimately determined they were not, themselves, evil personified.


There were others about whom I was unsure. That always disturbed me from a scientific and professional standpoint.


I'd be interested in knowing auntieannie68, how you differentiate illness from evil from a scientific/therapeutic viewpoint.

not being a scientist cannot quote science--many years as a mental health professional---once you have encountered evil,it becomes much easier to distinguish those that are evil from those with true mental health diagnosis---this cannot be explained by quotes on an internet from scientific studies but needs experience

to the unbelievers or those who only want a scientific rationale---they need someone who is similar to shore up their ideations

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by auntieannie68

just because you do not feel as other posters do does not give you the right to challenge and ask for others to prove to you something you do not believe in

You are correct. I have that right all along. I just decided to use it at that point.

Originally Posted by auntieannie68

---why do you feel the need to challenge a complimentary post?

Because I do not believe in your main point which seems to be that people cannot do mean spirited and selfish things and that they cannot be ignorant.

Even it there is a devil I do not think he really needs to help get killings and other crimes done. I personally feel it is a copout when people blame their actions on a higher evil force.

Originally Posted by auntieannie68

it is not what i want to hear; it(poster's)opinion is what i feel is true

OK. No problem, but I still would like you to clarify what evil really is. Because I know of people who are jealous, scared, make a bad judgement, greedy, drunk, etc. that do things similar to what you describe in your post and I do not think it takes an evil force to make them do it.

[ocpaul20]

Devils, demons and evil entities are SO misunderstood. I reckon they need serious counselling for years.

Old Guard

OK. No problem, but I still would like you to clarify what evil really is.

It is only a small stretch to God and the Devil when talking about 'evil' and 'good'. I think many, many people would argue for God/Devil and I guess that 'evil' is what religious people attribute to the work of the devil. This is an argument which cannot be won or lost because we dont have any scientificly recognised (if thats what you are looking for) evidence and understanding for anything paranormal.

Many priests/exorcists and demonologists would be out of work if we assumed all these cases they take on are human afflictions. What are they 'casting out'? What is causing the levitation effects and other things which are said to happen around the place or person who they are working on? Are they all just human minds creating effects on the environment? If so, then we need to seriously and scientifically investigate the true potential of the human mind.

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

Old Guard
It is only a small stretch to God and the Devil when talking about 'evil' and 'good'.

I try to avoid speaking about religion here. But there should be a definition for evil. The fact is that many atrocities have such petty and boring explanations. Not necessarily evil but greed, anger, jealousy and fear.

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

I think many, many people would argue for God/Devil and I guess that 'evil' is what religious people attribute to the work of the devil. This is an argument which cannot be won or lost because we dont have any scientificly recognised (if thats what you are looking for) evidence and understanding for anything paranormal.

But people have looked. Very intelligent people.

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

Many priests/exorcists and demonologists would be out of work if we assumed all these cases they take on are human afflictions.

Exactly. Follow the money.

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

What are they 'casting out'?

Are they casting anything out?

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

What is causing the levitation effects and other things which are said to happen around the place or person who they are working on?

I would argue that these things do not happen. I think people may think they happened or that they say they happened but you sum it up when you say "Which are said to happen". Anyone can say anything. That is why having a method that used unbiased measurements is important.

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

Are they all just human minds creating effects on the environment? If so, then we need to seriously and scientifically investigate the true potential of the human mind.

People have seriously and scientifically investigated the potential. Multiple conflicting interests. The potential to monetize, gain an advantage over and control dissidents would give a huge advantage to anyone who could control such powers. But there is nothing from these studies.

Then we have the spiritual side which has also been studied. It would confer the same benefits and nothing has been found.

People did not give up on these because there was nothing to be gained, they gave up on them because eventually they felt like there was nothing to them.