A place to vent what i'm thinking and feeling

The Exorcism

What i attended last night was the single most frightening thing i have seen up to date. It was really scary.

no it wasn't as scary as this... but it was scary

The exorcism i attended last night was so surreal - you cannot imagine.

Okay so the day starts with me going to uni and then meeting up with my friend, and then attending a church where most of our teabar mates attend. And the evening starts out with a lot of singing and worshipping which i'm not used to but still continue to watch. and then we are introduced to the "Exorcist" Mr Bob Carson from the US. He's a very confident man and really believes what he's talking about. At first he tries to plug his book and collection of DVDs on how to conduct your OWN deliverance. Then he introduced us to his entourage: the "Do What Jesus Did" (DWJD) team and then went through his philosophy of "Get your stuff before your stuff gets you"... At this point, i could see what he was generally trying to say but it was still much of a 'show'

Anyways Mr Bob walks around the church eyeing people and walking up to them with a guy at the back holding a camera to people's faces. Mr Bob says "Who wants to get rid of their stuff?". People stand up and he approaches them and asks them the most intimate of questions like - were you abused as a child, why do you have suicidal tendencies etc etc.

And people tell the truth here - coz they want to get rid of their stuff.

He then approaches a woman and she starts convulsing.

but here's the 1st troubling bit of the whole thing... You can see this woman is having some trouble - - she's convulsing for gosh sakes - - but all he says is - 'we're going to get one of my people to come speak to you later tonight'... and then he walks away from her and back on to the stage and proceeds to talk about how his show was free because it was funded by an overseas donator. But then he asks for people to donate money for a 'documentary' he's doing! Sure - - let's add another DVD to the endless amount of DVD collections he's released. And what's worse was that people blindly followed and wrote down their credit card details and wrote cheques. It was unbelievable.. So no I didn't take an envelope; i didn't write down my details. I was too concerned about the lady in the 4th row that was possibly possessed by some monstrous demon, but had to contain herself because 'he wanted to raise money for his dvd doco'. ack!

you know what as well? he didn't even talk to her for the rest of the night - he kept bypassing her whenever he walked past.

anyways here comes to the interesting bit. Mr Bob - after his dodgy attempt of raising money was out of the way; again proceeded to ask people if they wanted to "get rid of their stuff before the stuff got them". Many people stood up and walked to the front of the church. The first couple of cases were more emotional issues than repressed and possessed issues. but the next man was really having troubles. He was mostly angry that his dad left his mum when he was a baby.

Mr Bob said because of that, the devil got to him (the man). Ok to digress here for just a second: my friends and I were discussing - if a child is born without a father figure - would that mean that all children raised in single parent families - contain some form of demon inside them? it's just too inconceivable. i think mr bob was far off in that case.

anyway back to the story: so the man is led up the stage and faces the audience. He's twinging, having trouble speaking, and his face is contorting and Mr Bob is trying to talk to him. The man suddenly moans (the sound is deafening) - it was truly freaky. Mr Bob says it's the baby inside of the man that's trying to speak... later on it turns out that it was the demon speaking. The man curses and swears. Everyone in the church is wide-eyed. Later on we find out that it was a generational curse imposed upon the man because the man mentions that 'innocent blood has been spilt". So Mr Bob takes his oil and his bible and tries to cast the demon out. This demon inside the man is pretty strong so he asks for all the big men in the audience to hold this guy steady. Now this guy (possessed) is not a big fella; he's kinda scrawny and very docile looking. At this stage there's 4 huge guys holding onto him. Mr Bob continues his exorcism and commands the demon to get out but the demon in the man doesn't want to. the man kicks Mr Bob in the side of the face. Mr bob gets 3 more people on the stage so it's 7 people up holding the man down. The possessed man then curses again and tries to bite mr bob's finger, he's convulsing and contorting his body. the man hits his head against the microphone and bruises his forehead. 3 more men climb to the stage to restrain this man. By this time there are literally 10 men holding this guy's arms and legs together. I counted it myself. He continues to moan and swear obscenities. I think the moaning was really getting to me cause it was just making the hair on my arm stand on end. It was a shrill, then a moan, then a face contortion. so many goosebumps!!

people in the church started really freaking me out. they kept saying Jesus this and Jesus that and then people started speaking in tongues. it was so surreal. People were extending their hands out to this man with all their love, so as to banish this demon from him. But here's another interesting fact - although the predominant demon was 'anger', there were 3 other demons inside him including 'abandonment' and 'murder' and i forgot the other one.

[okay to be continued... i have to go out] [10.07am]

[4.15pm]

okay back again, so okay - there were about 4 demons possessing this man and it was taking so long to get rid of each of them. and each demon was worse than the one before it. it was strange yet so riveting... hmmm - i don't know if riveting is the correct term to use. let's just say I felt compelled to stay and see how the whole thing panned out. This was my first exorcism attendance and will most certainly be my last as far as i am concerned let me tell you.

what else what else - well after mr bob cast out the 2nd demon - there's more; because the man had no father figure when he grew up, Mr Bob asked all the father's in the church to come up and give the man a hug; they did - all the old grandfathers, young dads and most dads came up and gave this meaningful hug to this guy they never met at all. that's devotion for you. I got emotional there - that these people could care so much for this guy (who was still possessed mind you) and embrace him as their own son. it was touching. and then after the hugs, he converted back to a demon and was screaming again - only louder.

more cursing ensued.

I'm thinking back to it now and i'm questioning whether the man was subjected to mass hypnotism? I mean, let's say you had an issue you wanted to deal with and were then put in a position facing a large mass of people. You then revealed your issue in which the response to your issue was that you were possessed by the devil or a demon. You then were talked to as if you were the devil himself and people's gawking would be searing into your skin, people would hold you in place, people would be staring and praying and extending their hands out to you, oil and water was thrown at your face, the bible was banged on your head and a man kept talking to your face telling you that something should leave your body... wouldn't you just convince yourself that there was something wrong or else nobody would pay this much attention to you? it's all so confusing...

anyway, after a couple of more encryptic phrases; the man was speaking more clearly and everyone broke into song praying and praising Jesus for saving the man from eternal damnation. I was looking around the room and i could just feel the love and devotion in the room. Old men were crying, some old ladies were really extending their hands to the sky trying to reach out to something (all while singing) and the people on the stage were curled up in prayer. it was so emotional.

I really don't know if the man was faking it but if he was - he is the best actor alive because everyone in the church was on the edge of their seats, all with a look of horror and shock and belief in their eyes... after the singing and the praying i left.

I guess the concept of something inhabiting your body and residing within the depths of your mind and soul is very hard to grasp; especially if you are going through a heightened state of emotion. it's a very frightening concept which i don't fully understand yet and can't begin to give an educated answer on at all. i don't know any philosophies and i don't know religion like the back of my hand. all i know is - if you've got issues - tell someone or else you're going to get worse.

I didn't realise how seriously people took their religion until I attended that exorcism aka 'deliverance'. It was really full on.

freaky stuff.

posted by MissDixie @ 4:50 pm