Changes

==Medical conditions==

==Medical conditions==

[[Schizoid personality disorder]], [[Tourette's syndrome]], [[Epilepsy|epileptic siezures]], [[obsessive compulsive disorder]], [[Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder|PTSD]], [[Alzheimer's disease]],  the effects of [[Chronic traumatic encephalopathy|traumatic brain injury]], have all been tradically mistaken for possession. There are many documented cases of oppression by unclean spirits which do not in any way present episodes of inexplicable speech and bizarre behaviors. In the [[New Testament]], both [[Judas Iscariot]] and Ananias were filled with Satan, and they acted like normal men (John 13:2, 26-30; Acts 5:1-10).

[[Schizoid personality disorder]], [[Tourette's syndrome]], [[Epilepsy|epileptic seizures]], [[obsessive compulsive disorder]], [[Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder|PTSD]], [[Alzheimer's disease]],  the effects of [[Chronic traumatic encephalopathy|traumatic brain injury]], have all been tradically mistaken for possession. There are many documented cases of oppression by unclean spirits which do not in any way present episodes of inexplicable speech and bizarre behaviors. In the [[New Testament]], both [[Judas Iscariot]] and Ananias were filled with Satan, and they acted like normal men (John 13:2, 26-30; Acts 5:1-10).

==Oppressive influence and attacks==

==Oppressive influence and attacks==

==Misguided amateur exorcists and charlatans==  

==Misguided amateur exorcists and charlatans==  

In genuine exorcisms it is Christ who compels the unclean spirit to depart, not the self-assumed authority of the exorcist who claims to be acting in his name, saying, "I bind thee" and "I take authority over thee" and "I cast thee out", a potentially disastrous situation in which claiming spiritual dominance by telling demons where to go degenerates into a personal power play and turns what is supposed to be a sacred ministry into an egotist’s playground. (Compare Acts 19:11-16.)

In genuine exorcisms it is Christ who compels the unclean spirit to depart, not the self-assumed authority of the exorcist who claims to be acting in his name, saying, "I bind thee" and "I take authority over thee" and "I cast thee out", a potentially disastrous situation in which claiming spiritual dominance by telling demons where to go degenerates into a personal power play and turns what is supposed to be a sacred ministry into an egotist's playground. (Compare Acts 19:11-16.)

Aggressive, violent and extreme physical force intentionally inflicted on the body of the victim, including cruel forms of restraining the subject by methods that identically resemble the [[Sadomasochism|sado-masochistic]] perversion called "bondage", is never necessary to drive it out, never used by authentically trained exorcists, and such methods cannot drive it out, since a spirit is not a material being that can be affected or injured by physical assault. Such extreme physical measures only result in serious harm to the victim, with degrading, humiliating, painful injury, causing severe mental, emotional trauma and shock, even death—such viciously cruel and lethal "exorcisms" done by individuals claiming for themselves authority to act "in the name of the Lord" are outstanding examples of Satanic [[blasphemy]], and may actually be signs that the "exorcist" is the one possessed by an unclean spirit (if he or she is not instead actually mentally ill)—'''''not''''' the innocent victim of the "exorcism". (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).  

Aggressive, violent and extreme physical force intentionally inflicted on the body of the victim, including cruel forms of restraining the subject by methods that identically resemble the [[Sadomasochism|sado-masochistic]] perversion called "bondage", is never necessary to drive it out, never used by authentically trained exorcists, and such methods cannot drive it out, since a spirit is not a material being that can be affected or injured by physical assault. Such extreme physical measures only result in serious harm to the victim, with degrading, humiliating, painful injury, causing severe mental, emotional trauma and shock, even death—such viciously cruel and lethal "exorcisms" done by individuals claiming for themselves authority to act "in the name of the Lord" are outstanding examples of Satanic [[blasphemy]], and may actually be signs that the "exorcist" is the one possessed by an unclean spirit (if he or she is not instead actually mentally ill)—'''''not''''' the innocent victim of the "exorcism". (2 Corinthians 11:12-15).