Why does exorcism work in other religions?

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DaughteroftheCreator

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Hello,

Recently, I was thinking about how the fact that Satan and demons seem to fear the name of Jesus was yet again another proof that Christ is indeed God and that Christianity is the truth, and then I realized that other religions also perform exorcism, like for example in Islam, and they seemingly obtain the same results as catholic exorcism by reading certain surah etc.

So I was wondering how could we explain this? How come demons seems to run when they hear Jesus’ name as well as when they hear the Quran which, as far as I’m concerned, is nothing but human fabrication?
 
Since I am not a moslem, perhaps you could kindly give example of the verses translation of the prayers they use for exorcism?

If I am not mistaken one of the prayer is saying that there is only one God. That is actually a similarity to the Torah teaching.

Probably that explains why it can be used for exorcism.
 
Well they seem to use surah 1, 113 and 114 which indeed say things like “I seek refuge in the god of humankind” and insist on the unicity of God, but it still seems weird to me that this would actually work. Of course it’s close to impossible to know if the claims they make about it are real but I can’t seem to find any proper investigation on the subject.
 
True, which is why I was looking for some serious, unbiased investigation on this topic but can’t seem to find any.
 
Well, there are multiple possible reasons for this, most of which have likely occurred to you. The four obvious ones seem to be:
  1. That, while Christianity is the “correct” religion, God reacts to sincere appeals from all of His children, and therefore will sometimes assist those in need regardless of their religion;
  2. That all (or many) religions have a sufficient claim to correctness such that their various rituals are effective;
  3. That no exorcisms are actually effective, and what is happening is something else (psychology, fraud, or whatever), regardless of the religion.
  4. That exorcisms by Christians are effective, but those of other religions are something else (psychology, fraud or whatever).
I think many Catholics would probably go with 4, while others would say 1, and still others would go with 3. (not necessarily in that order). I don’t think most Catholics would agree with 2, but there are probably a few.

What do you think?
 
Actually, I hadn’t thought about those options so thank you. I’d tend to think 1 and 4 are the most probable reasons why those exorcisms might work. What do you think?
 
I tend to think that most exorcisms fall under 3, but for those that don’t, I would go with some form of 1.
 
Actually before the Catholic Church authorizes the use of the rite of exorcism all other plausible explanations have to have been exhausted.
Only then the Bishop will authorize it. Precisely to minimize the possibility of fraud or natural causes.

Peace!
 
DaughteroftheCreator said:
hen I realized that other religions also perform exorcism, like for example in Islam,
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Why, then, did Mary appear to atheists, Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics all together in Zeitoun, Egypt, since you are dismissive of Islam? In other apparitions, she has been selectively visible to a few; in Zeitoun she seemed to be visible to many if not to all who chose to go to the site, including those I mentioned.
 
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DaughteroftheCreator said:
and then I realized that other religions also perform exorcism
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Rather false.

You cannot do this in other religions, simply because they don’t believe TRULY in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God.

There are cases of ‘other people’ trying to deal with demons in Bible. None of them went well. Here’s an example from Acts 19:13-17
Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.

And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.

And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?

And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
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‏‏‎ ‎Ergo, don’t try it at home.
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The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil One and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism.”
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Sorry but only Exorcist performing Rite of Exorcism can do this.

Exorcist appointed by Vatican.

The Introduction to Exorcisms and Related Supplications further directs that the priest “has been specifically prepared for this office”
 
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I think the biggest issue here is assuming all Exorcisms are the same, or rather that all claims of spiritual possession are equivalent.

Sometimes the person is really just mentally disturbed either due to a physiological or psychological issue.

Its not like we have a direct test that indicates “yes this person is actually possessed, but that one isn’t.” Many religions have procedures…but admittedly those procedures do fail.

I mean the high profile case in that regard: → Anneliese Michel - Wikipedia
 
@LastMinute
What kind of procedure is in DeltaGreen9009# religion?
 
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So do Jews by God the Father. Atleast I think that’s how it works. I wouldn’t try 😃
 
Lol, that was just me testing out the system.

I’m a Catholic - with Eastern Catholic flirtations i guess you can say.

I’ve actually looked into this matter, from a neuroscience perspective a long long time ago. I should clarify, many religions have rituals - but dependent of where you are in the world, there might not be an established vetting process for if a person could really be considered possessed, in the manner that the religion describes.

I’ve seen for instance, Indonesian Sunni imams bring out the idea that they can “cure homosexuality” through Exoricsm. I’ve seen another filmed in the UK of all places, where the Exorcism was done on a woman suffering from medical problems. The Imam in question supposedly does that type of thing at least 1,000-3,000 times a year. The whole affair is very reminscent of an Evangelical Television Preacher’s idea of Exorcism. Meanwhile - if you asked the Ultra-Conservative Muslims you’d find coming out of Saudi Arabia, they’d kinda scoff at the above two examples - thinking that the above examples are kind of off… they also have an exorcism tradition which they consider to be authentic whereas the above examples aren’t.

Its actually funny - i’ve seen this dynamic playout before more closer to home.

In Taiwan and parts of China there are “Blackhat” and “Redhat” Daoists. “Redhat” refers to the larger Group, which operates on the level of Folk Daoist beliefs - calling upon heroes and gods that every Chinese person could recognize due to shared culture.

“Blackhat” Daoists trace their lineage to the the original Celestial Master, the one who started Daoism as a formal religion ~142 AD / Han Dynasty. Whereas the “Redhats” kinda put on a show the same way a Christian Evangelical or Populist Muslim Imam might do, the “Blackhats” rites are much more subdued - always within the boundaries of their Temple, with a very proscribed set of rituals that needs to be executed, calling upon deities in the Celestial Hierarchy that most Chinese people have never heard of.

If you asked the “Blackhats” what the “Redhats” are doing, they’d give you the same response we’d give about Christian Televangelists or what the Saudi-trained Muslims would give about Sufi-esque type of exorcisms.

Again though - i’ve never seen any medical vetting done in any of the examples shown above. I think that shows in more traditional cultures - Exorcism is used for a variety of ailments - from physical illness to bad luck.

Edit - Roman Catholicism can be argued to be a very “legalistic” religion, which tends to like standardization of processes. The Exorcism ritual as we know it today is traced to an attempt at standardization sometime in the 17th century. Prior to that, a lot of Exorcisms on record, esp. by Saints, seem more…spontaneous? (might not be the word i’m lookng for). In other words, someone like Saint Benedict or St. Bruno or St. Denis isn’t going through a whole procedure to drive out an entity.
 
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LastMinute said:
I should clarify, many religions have rituals
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Yes, and many religions recognise demons and evil as obstacles in our lives. I think it’s natural wish to expell demons from person and her life.

I have also seen many of those videos, some of them are just hillarious. Other are pretty abusive to person who is just calm and wants help.
Many Animism kind of religions don’t have process of discernment, some other religions don’t want include process and base their decisions on their feelings.

I find this picture pretty much true. I have heard story from one pastor (who is also exorcist) that even Muslims come to him when Imams cannot help. That parish in part of country where Muslims are majority (Europe). Pastor prays for them, tells them to stay faithful to moral law and to be obedient to their religous leader. They are asked to acknowledge Jesus as son of God.

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I would personally just say that Catholic Church do the best thing in discernment for exorcism. Person has to meet all kind of doctors, psychiatrist as well. It is not something that Church does for fun. Church doesn’t need attitude “We did xy number of succesfull exorcisms. We nailed it!”.
Prayer of exorcism is normal part of Church’s prayers. Nothing sensationalistic.

Exorcism existed in time of King David, Salomon and many other Biblical persons. Form of prayer was maybe different and IS different depending on many factors. Bible has many stories on exorcism prayers.
 
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Blockquote I have also seen many of those videos, some of them are just hillarious. Other are pretty abusive to person who is just calm and wants help.
Many Animism kind of religions don’t have process of discernment, some other religions don’t want include process and base their decisions on their feelings. > Blockquote
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I see it a little bit differently.

Like many of the other world religions, early members of the Church utilized exorcisms for a variety of different things (remember, we didn’t have a standard procedure until ~1612). And its understandable, because modern science and medicine didn’t exist back then so how could anyone make a discernment between something like epilepsy or possession.

The eventual position that the Church took on matter of science and faith probably helped this out alot. Since we don’t have an underlying issue about how we conceive of the relationship of the natural sciences to faith (although admittedly we have people who have disagreements over processes like evolution), a process of discernment is possible.

We basically kicked it to the medical experts and told them “Tell us when its not a medical issue.” And i think that sort of approach helped highlight that there have been cases that, at the very least, have to be put into the category of “strange and not explainable” for those who do not subscribe to the faith.

Again of course - we aren’t perfect. The Anneliese michel case proves that.
 
LastMinute said:
so how could anyone make a discernment between something like epilepsy or possession.
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I agree but at the same time Devil can cause illnesses (of course with God’s approval) which can be recognised by medicine.
Devil can also imitate any illness and make it look like medical case.
LastMinute said:
Again of course - we aren’t perfect. The Anneliese michel case proves that.
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Well her case was definitely strange but I think there is alot of unknown. God knows.
 
I was once a muslim and I performed ruqya on myself four times. It only worked two out of four times. My understanding is that you just had to recite surah 113 and 114 in arabic. Both of those surahs are prayers in which a person seeks refuge in Allah from stuff like the evil eye, black magic and Satan. My point is that they don’t always work.
 
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