Have you ever heard of the myth that Autistic People are "demon possessed?"

[All-Rounder]

I've run across this one from a Catholic priest at the college which I attend (a very small Catholic liberal arts college.) He denied that high-functioning autism exists, sticking with the Asperger's designation, then decided to ask my political affiliation--I answered Liberal, so he concluded that I must have a demon. I concluded that spiritual direction is not for me at this point.

My girlfriend is also autistic, and a die-hard Catholic. She's gotten the soft-pedaled approach to this--the idea that everything can just be "prayed away." Some people don't actually realize that a psychological issue may need something other than prayers to resolve; God gave man Reason and Science for a good cause! Now she's doing better.

I know living in the deep south again I'm meeting people who think anyone who isn't Just Like Them has got to be mentally ill or demonically affected.
If you've ever maybe gotten the sense, @Greatshield17, that I am deliberately unfriendly to traditionalist Catholics, or to Conservatives in general, this is all some of my reasoning for avoiding that group/lifestyle.

Exactly! Mentally ill. That label's thrown around so much by people who have never read a mental health article or ones who don't understand what they even read.

 

[Magna]

I've never heard of this but I grew up Catholic in a very cult-like household and I was actually deeply traumatized as a child by seeing just a short bit of the movie The Exorcist when it was broadcast on network television. I was literally horrified by it and had persistent nightmares. I was convinced that becoming demon possessed was a probable outcome for me. My reasoning as a young child was: In the movie the young girl, from what I saw, didn't do anything to become possessed. She was just a regular girl that Satan chose to prey on. If that happened in the movie, then why couldn't Satan prey on me, an innocent child, as well? Was it only a matter of time that I would wake up possessed?

 

[All-Rounder]

I also grew up in dad's religious cult. He had very strict rules for us generally more than the cult was affected. Regardless of the abolished system in my country, among other things, the money and food was selected and rationed. Madness. I have witnessed on my own skin how religion can disroot people from their own reality and people close to them. Until he ended up suiciding.
Some level of this is present in all religious people.

 

[Greatshield17]

You claim disorderly people aren't posessed and it's a myth. I consider it to be disgusting and waste of time as well, untrue. That person should be getting treatment or help.

No I did not claim that demonic possession is a myth, it is true. But I'm not in the mood right now to explain it to you.

 

[Greatshield17]

Exactly! Mentally ill. That label's thrown around so much by people who have never read a mental health article or ones who don't understand what they even read.

Wile I'm not friends with @Gerontius he is a fellow-Catholic and does believe the demons and demonic possession are real.

 

[Magna]

Wile I'm not friends with @Gerontius he is a fellow-Catholic and does believe the demons and demonic possession are real.

It's very difficult in modern times not to look at Bible passages about demoniacs and posit that those such as the Gerasene Demoniac weren't simply suffering from severe mental illness. I also feel bad for all of the swine in that passage. Animal lives matter too. Bizarre that Jesus sent Legion into a huge number of animals causing their drowning deaths en masse rather than sending the demons directly back to hell. Weird too that Jesus granted Legion's demonic request to possess the swine rather than be sent to hell directly but hell is eternal torture without recourse for humans.

 

[Greatshield17]

It's very difficult in modern times not to look at Bible passages about demoniacs and posit that those such as the Gerasene Demoniac weren't simply suffering from severe mental illness.

"Who had his dwelling in the tombs, and no man now could bind him, not even with chains.

For having been often bound with fetters and chains, he had burst the chains, and broken the fetters in pieces, and no one could tame him." -Mark 5:3-4 DR

Sounds like to mental illness to me. Also, you brought up to the movie The Exorcist, the movie is based off a real-life account of someone who was possessed; I'll go more into details on it when again, I'm in the mood, but for now I'll just say, one of the things the possessed person did in the presence of the priests was speak fluently in Ecclesial Latin. Skeptics try to explain this away by claiming that he just heard the priests praying in Latin and copied it cuz that's how that works! I don't know why I'm trying to learn Spanish for my move to Chile, apparently all I have to do is just listen to the Chileans there speak a few brief sentences in Spanish and then copy them and it'll be as though I can speak fluently in Spanish!

 

[Greatshield17]

You claim disorderly people aren't posessed and it's a myth. I consider it to be disgusting and waste of time as well, untrue. That person should be getting treatment or help.

Wile I'm not friends with @Gerontius he is a fellow-Catholic and does believe the demons and demonic possession are real.

It's very difficult in modern times not to look at Bible passages about demoniacs and posit that those such as the Gerasene Demoniac weren't simply suffering from severe mental illness. I also feel bad for all of the swine in that passage. Animal lives matter too. Bizarre that Jesus sent Legion into a huge number of animals causing their drowning deaths en masse rather than sending the demons directly back to hell. Weird too that Jesus complied with Legion's demonic wishes to possess the swine rather than be sent to hell directly but hell is eternal torture without recourse for humans.

I firmly stand by all that I said, but I am sorry about the way I said it; I'm just struggling with anger and frustration over a lot of things right now, including how I've been treated by people and how they treat each other. (Not that I'm not irritated at some of the things said on this thread.)

 

[Kalinychta]

My mother’s husband is an Orthodox Christian who believes that autism isn’t real. Actually they don’t believe that mental illness is real either. Apparently it’s all just sinfulness and denial of their god or something.

 

[Gerontius]

While I'm not friends with @Gerontius he is a fellow-Catholic and does believe the demons and demonic possession are real.

Just as a word of warning, do not bring my religion, beliefs, or anything like that into your discussions on the Internet. I live a completely separate life on the opposite side of the continent, and I do not want people reading your posts, & thinking I agree with you--because I do not.
Thanks in advance for refraining, in the future, from doing stuff that would make people think I agree with you.

 

[Magna]

Catholics believe in demons, demonic possession, etc. I believe every diocese or at least every archdiocese has priests trained as exorcists.

 

[Gerontius]

Catholics believe in demons, demonic possession, etc. I believe every diocese or at least every archdiocese has priests trained as exorcists.

Yes, and I've met many of these priests who were trained in that. It's a fairly important job they do, and, to prevent abuses, there are some criteria that have to be met so that they don't end up exorcising someone who has actual mental disorders or illnesses. You can't exorcise someone out of a sickness; that's not how it works. I'm not an exorcist, though, so I wouldn't be able to tell you--that's not my line of work.

The cult-like household you mentioned is definitely tough. I have a deep dislike for culty Catholicism & would like to know where it started from here; it wasn't as bad for me as it was for some people but it was still pretty intense and I will not have that in my household going forward.

 

[Greatshield17]

Catholics believe in demons, demonic possession, etc. I believe every diocese or at least every archdiocese has priests trained as exorcists.

Correct.

 

[Magna]

WWJD?

 

[Gerontius]

WWJD?

Not sure really. I've been pretty damn tired of dealing with the ultra-catholics for a long time. When I was a kid the priest had newsletters from a hate group in the sacristy at church. Textbooks denied evolution & climate change, focusing on the Book of Genesis. I go to college & there's a guy who decided to tell other people at the school, including my best friends, that "he's autistic so he can't actually care about you" and for two years now I've had a hard time interacting with other people at my own college.
I'm quite finished with that whole side of Catholicism, and consider it a corruption of a good thing.

 

[Greatshield17]

WWJD?

Oh I could come up with a long and detailed list, but I’m not going to sink to his level and bring up stuff from his past, let alone stuff that his shown in a grossly mischaracterized way because I wasn’t allowed to defend myself. (If you have time to waste you’re free to read that thread he shared with you, I won’t protest nor defend myself; I’ve learned the hard that when you’re accused and/or misjudged by people, sometimes the best thing to do is tell them to go ahead and believe it and suffer the consequences of believing it.) No I’m not go to sink to his level, especially considering it’s getting rather late here, I definitely don’t want to lose sleep over this! I’m just going to go to bed and enjoy my Sunday rest.

Goodnight.

 

[UberScout]

I don't believe this myself but for more than several years at a time, both me and Maddog have reason to believe I do have a demon of some sort in me. Not because I'm autistic but because I think I may have walked a little too far from home one time, if you get my meaning...

...God... Th-that face, I-I still see it in my mind...

 

[tree]

Oh I could come up with a long and detailed list, but I’m not going to sink to his level and bring up stuff from his past, let alone stuff that his shown in a grossly mischaracterized way because I wasn’t allowed to defend myself. (If you have time to waste you’re free to read that thread he shared with you, I won’t protest nor defend myself; I’ve learned the hard that when you’re accused and/or misjudged by people, sometimes the best thing to do is tell them to go ahead and believe it and suffer the consequences of believing it.) No I’m not go to sink to his level, especially considering it’s getting rather late here, I definitely don’t want to lose sleep over this! I’m just going to go to bed and enjoy my Sunday rest.

Goodnight.

This post, as written, gives the impression that the individual referred to is Jesus, since
it is a reply to Post #36.

WWJD?

 

[tree]

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[Greatshield17]

This post, as written, gives the impression that the individual referred to is Jesus, since
it is a reply to Post #36.

Well it's not...