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posted by mrpg on Thursday December 06 2018, @04:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-power-of-god-compels-you-to-read-it dept.

The conviction that demons exist—and that they exist to harass, derange, and smite human beings—stretches back as far as religion itself. In ancient Mesopotamia, Babylonian priests performed exorcisms by casting wax figurines of demons into a fire. The Hindu Vedas, thought to have been written between 1500 and 500 b.c., refer to supernatural beings—known as asuras, but largely understood today as demons—that challenge the gods and sabotage human affairs. For the ancient Greeks, too, demonlike creatures lurked on the shadowy fringes of the human world.

But far from being confined to a past of Demiurges and evil eyes, belief in demonic possession is widespread in the United States today. Polls conducted in recent decades by Gallup and the data firm YouGov suggest that roughly half of Americans believe demonic possession is real. The percentage who believe in the devil is even higher, and in fact has been growing: Gallup polls show that the number rose from 55 percent in 1990 to 70 percent in 2007.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/catholic-exorcisms-on-the-rise/573943/


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:46AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:46AM (#770573) Homepage Journal

    I convinced my mother that I was stone deaf every time she'd walk right up to me then shout directly at my face.

    "No, Mom. I'm not deaf, I just wasn't listening."

    Those trances took place when I was nine and ten years old. They went away then returned when I was thirty four.

    One day I was lost in thought when my attention gradually wandered towards someone shouting my name as if from a great distance away. Eventually I heard that voice calling my name. As time passed I grew increasingly aware that it was quite cold, and that I was dressed quite warmly. Eventually I found myself standing near quite a beautiful frozen waterfall, then an even more beautiful young woman.

    "Why is she so upset?" I wondered.

    "MIKE! MIKE! SNAP OUT OF IT! DON'T DO THIS TO ME!"

    That was Bonita, at the time my girlfriend, then later my wife, now my ex.

    She called it "Living Inside Your Head". I didn't regard that as a problem because as I explained I regarded being lost in thought to be a better way to live.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
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