there is a war that's being waged
between good and evil
Phaethon gog will lead us in one
direction the lack of faith will lead us
in another
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I have seen many manifestations of evil
an exorcism is the only cure for what is
truly demonically possessed
the Catholic Church knows that most of
these claims are blowing they cling to
this because they're afraid to give up
that last vestige of the supernatural if
there's no demons and maybe there's no
devil and if there's no devil
maybe there's no God I'm father Vincent
Lampert I have been a Catholic priests
for the past 25 years I was appointed by
my archbishop to be the exorcist for
Indianapolis it was not a position that
I sought but in 2005 the archbishop
selected me for the role he told me that
he wanted a priest who believed in the
reality of evil but not one who would be
so gullible to believe that everybody
who came to him was actually up against
the forces of evil when I was appointed
I became one of only 12 officially
appointed Exorcist in United States that
number has now grown to around 50
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some people will dabble in the things of
the occult believing that perhaps
they're just fun and entertaining but
what they may not fully realize is that
they're dabbling with evil and they
could be opening up an entry point for
evil into their lives take this all of
you and eat of it for this is my body
which will be given up for you
I'm the pastor here at st. malachy
parish and Brownsburg Indiana the parish
has approximately 2,500 families or just
around nine thousand parishioners there
are many people who laugh at the notion
of demonic possession or even reality
itself but the Catholic Church does
teach that evil is reality and it is
personified in the person of the devil
so over the years exorcism has undergone
many different transformations exorcism
goes back even before the time of Christ
but exorcisms became truly efficacious
or real with the coming of Christ
the oldest formalized version of the
Rite of exorcism would date back to 1614
it was revised in 1999 some of the
manifestations I witness over the years
seem kind of incredible incredulous
I think the manifestations that one sees
in movies such as The Exorcist all that
truly is possible eyes rolling in the
back of the head foaming at the mouth
growling and snarling like a wild animal
strong stenches the temperature in the
room will drop bodily contortions I
remember a person who began to levitate
during the exorcism
now these manifestations are meant to
distract the Exorcist and I learn
quickly that the exercise should not
focus on the manifestations of evil but
focus on the power of God that is at
work
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there's an international association of
Exorcist which received official Vatican
approval just about two years ago I am a
member of that organization and there's
a gathering in Rome every other year
demonic possession is extremely rare one
out of every 5,000 people who contact me
is a genuine case of demonic possession
hello Mary how are you
obviously this is an industry that I
cannot do alone so there's a lady that
works with me and I jokingly like to
refer to her as my ex or assistant she's
really the first line of defense the
majority of people that she talks to
just need a listening ear I can help
answer any questions that you have well
I've got a revolving list right now some
people that are local because they would
be in our diocese about one guy from
Southern Indiana they keeps calling in I
don't think he remembers all the times
that we've talked because he always acts
like no one has ever talked to me or
ever tried to help me and that's what
gives credence to the fact that this is
truly something of a mental health issue
as opposed to something that's demonic
course it doesn't help to because I also
know I was just talking with another
priest he was telling me that he doesn't
believe any of this you know some people
will accept what the Church believes and
teaches about the reality of evil some
people won't
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I am dr. Michael Shermer publisher of
skeptic magazine in the head of the
55,000 members strong skeptic Society I
have two graduate degrees one in
Experimental Psychology and the other in
the history of science so my specialty
really is understanding belief systems
how the mind works related to why we
believe anything that we believe in the
investigation of exorcisms has been
popular since we started the magazine
really because it kind of comes and goes
depending on what's hot in pop culture
you know the Pew Research says 1 in 10
Americans claim that they've seen an
exorcism I suspect most of those or
people that have seen The Exorcist or
watched a documentary on TV or something
like that you know if you go on YouTube
and just type in demon possession
there's thousands of videos you can
spend an hour and be an expert on what
they're supposed to look like so the
church has these you know sort a list of
criteria for what would constitute a
possession speaking in tongues
glossolalia is one of them spouting off
the sort of sequence of syllables and
just you know it's sounds nonsensical
and then somebody interprets it now we
know because we've had linguists analyze
recordings of what is being said and
they say this is not a language
it's just babble you know it's literally
a psychodrama the music the chanting the
dancing and the singing you know that it
gets you caught up into it it's like a
rave you feel the emotions that we feel
the brain chemistry changing the
hormones pumping through your body
contorted body postures and the writhing
on the ground the utterances it's just
imitation I've actually gone up to one
of these and I can almost feel like okay
here I go I can almost feel like coming
on like it I wasn't even a believer this
is imitation it's roleplay
in addition to these exorcisms being
nonsensical from a scientific
perspective they're also dangerous there
have been people killed suffocated
tortured it's not a harmless exercise
and entertainment it's potentially very
dangerous once you start to believe
something the confirmation bias kicks in
in which you look for confirming
evidence that it's true and you ignore
the disconfirming evidence everybody
doesn't unfortunately this leads to
great distortions of belief there's no
such thing as the paranormal or the
supernatural
there's just the normal and the natural
and the things we haven't explained yet
this is where I perform my most intense
case of exorcism it took place five
years ago here in this convent the items
I've used for exorcism and in addition
in my bag I also have the holy water
that I would use we came into the space
the spouse who was very strong and
confident in his belief the woman who
was afflicted sat down here you could
smell in the air the sense of
perspiration just the anxiety of what
was about to take place no sooner did
the drops of water hit the head of the
lady Venna manifestations began
immediately she exhibited local outburst
speaking in languages that she didn't
otherwise know exhibiting strength
beyond the normal capacity of a person
and also an aversion to things of his
sacred nature
and all this was going on as I was
praying something akele Archangel a
defending no sin pray leo contradict
with iam get insid Kyrie Eleison Christe
Eleison
and so I commanded the demon Leviathan
to depart immediately and then the demon
that had been speaking in his very
strong authoritative voice began to
speak like a little baby and then looked
at me and said hail Mary full of grace
and there was a shriek and all the
manifestations of evil ended because the
presence of evil was now completely gone
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people will believe what they will so
it's not really my task to try to
convince people of something because if
you're a person of faith you begin with
the premise that believing is seeing
people that may come from more of a
scientific background may begin with the
premise that I have to see in order to
believe
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you