I’m willing to put up with a great amount of nonsense (read: bullshit) before I blow. I’m willing to keep my mouth shut to keep the peace, but since the film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose came out, it has become almost faddish to be exorcized, either by choice or not. And there are break-off sects that go around from house to house doing this “work of God.”
When I was little, I used to write letters to Jesus (that’s how much temporal lobe epilepsy and Geschwind’s Syndrome affected my life). It wasn’t that my faith wasn’t real, only that it was heightened by my epilepsy and I was thus drawn to all manner of things religious. I even thought I’d be a nun for years, sneaking off to church after school. While the other kids snuck off for a quick snog, I was on my reddened knees praying before the Virgin statue. My grandmother always knew where to find me. But I digress; I wrote to Jesus and miracle of miracles, every morning there is an answer with illustrations, just as I had sent. He had the exact same handwriting as my grandfather, the meaning of which was lost on me until adulthood.
You see, it is possible to be quite religious and yet still maintain a healthy sense of humor as most normal people know. It’s also more than possible that the Exorcism of Emily Rose, true story or not, should never have been true. An epileptic should never be put through such what I would label abuse. Fine if you disagree, but take the argument elsewhere since to me, it is too absurd to have.
I’ve been called names, I’ve had to throw people out of my house and now I have to wonder if some people want to “save” me, if they’ll tie me down and shout obscenities at “the evil forces inside” me and put me through a living hell, as if seizures alone were not a living hell. But what bothers me most is the ignorance of it all. That much, I just cannot and will not swallow. Silly me; I thought we'd moved beyond this.
Article comments
1 - Jumper Bailey
Having had some experience in the more enthusiastically holy-rolling churches growing up (we stopped just short of handling snakes), you have my sympathy on this one. Indeed, the "cures" seem to be more calculated towards inducing seizures than preventing them, although I suspect the seizures induced would be viewed as "psychogenic non-epileptic seizures" rather than epilectic ones in such a context, technically speaking.
2 - Jumper Bailey
...by which I mean that they seem to induce seizures even among those who are not epilectic.
3 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
Baily, you're bang on the money - this type of thing would or could induce seizures in anyone, esp. those with a lower seizure threshold... In an epileptic, most certainly they would.
be well - s.
4 - Baronius
I'm not sure why you focus on the Catholic Church. The Emily Rose story is based on a Catholic exorcism that happened 30 years ago. The Catholic Church has been performing exorcisms for a long time, and I don't know of any recent increase. It takes a long time to get approval for an exorcism, so I doubt that a post-movie increase would even be possible.
There are plenty of evangelical ministers who perform exorcisms, and they don't have the authentication procedures that Catholics do. So if that radio story is true, that's probably where the increase is taking place.