Psychology and Exorcism working together
This article arises as a result of coming across a document posted to several mysticism sites; this document at heart outlines a modern merging of the older methods and newer science. The mystical arena includes many perennial debates regarding science and religion/mysticism and for some there is unlikely to be a satisfactory meeting of minds any time soon, it was with this in mind that the article got my attention. I did try to contact the originating site with a view to obtaining permission to reprint but with no response. The article deals briefly, with how psychology worked to be recognised as a ‘science’. Readers of this subject will be aware that psychology had certain roots that included shadows of thinking that is more esoteric but these fell away over time along with methodologies of the time such as exorcism, there are probably also other methods that deserved to fall away, for example trepanning.
Quote: This issue is now being discussed in various psychological circles in the Islamic and Western world. A few years ago, the idea of a spiritual being possessing a human being was completely rejected by western psychologist as a form of superstitious beliefs carried over from the Middle Ages. More recently, as science matured and felt secure it began to re look into the possibility of the influence of such beings on humans. Chief among the modern psychiatrist and thinkers who discussed the possibility of spirit possession is Dr. M. Scott Peck the author of "The Road Less Traveled". In one of his books he mentions that he has personally attended to cases of spirit possession in which the patient were cured after exorcism in a vary short time that does not happen in psychiatric treatment.
The document goes on to make a case for the use of exorcism as a complementary methodology for the treatment of some psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, it points out how the term is somewhat all encompassing and draws a few analogies to explain why this should not be so.
The source of this document is an Islamic website that deals with healing topics and in general it makes for some informative reading. A feature of Islam is recognition of a class of entity known as the jinn, the nature of this is considered to be mischievous along with some other qualities and it is considered somewhat responsible for some of the ills that befall humankind. Indeed Islamic law takes account of the actions of the jinn and the resultant diminished responsibility that may occur for those affected by such. The document goes on to remind us of the possibility of jinn possession.
Quote: From this, we Muslims should not discard the possibility of Jinn possession. We have in the traditions of our prophet (pbuh) and the biography of early Muslim physicians much evidences to the value of reading the Quran and using its verses as therapy and a form of exorcism. We should be open minded in accepting the physical as well as the spiritual aspects of human nature…
… well-known traditional muslim healers discussed the value of Ruqaiyyah (prayer for therapeutic purposes as well as exorcism of Jinn possession).
So, a different tradition for most of us and while the article is fairly short and cursory it does I think provide an interesting example of how science and religion are, in some cases, finding common ground for research and revised thinking. The full article is at
http://www.quranichealing.com/bpi.asp?caid=61&cid=138.
The place of the jinn has interested me for some time and some believe that their exploits could account for some UFO encounters, old hag interludes (incubus / succubus) and a few other things. Some will know or know of the late Gordon Creighton, he wrote an article with the title ‘The True Nature of UFO Entities’ originally published in Flying Saucer Review that explores some of these ideas. For those with a further interest it can currently be found at
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/jinns.htm. The sacred-text site is a repository of articles from many sources which without their efforts would no longer be available.
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