Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

214 Possession and Exorcism
is requested to set the victim free. The concluding
formula ordering the demon to exit the individual
ends with, “Therefore, go back Satan.”
Protestants have also relied upon exorcisms
over the centuries, though most Protestant efforts
to drive out demons have been less formal that
Catholic rites. Almost all liberal, mainstream
Protestant religious bodies reject the very notion
of Satan as a literal, self-conscious being. As a
consequence, contemporary, liberal Protestants—
as well as many liberal Catholics—tend to reject
traditional ideas about possession and exorcism as
reflecting a premodern worldview that humanity
has grown beyond. Thus the Gospel stories about
Jesus exorcising unclean spirits are viewed as figurative
ways of expressing psychological healing.
Conservative Protestants believe a diversity of
different things about spirit possession, although
there are broad areas of agreement because of
shared views regarding the authority of biblical
accounts. Many conservative Protestants see Satan
at work behind a wide variety of different contemporary
phenomena.
For example, in a Demon Possession Handbook
for Human Service Workers, Evangelical author J. F.
Cogan attributes demonic possession as the
source of numerous social problems:
Serial killing
Serial arson
Spousal abuse (the result of intermittent
demon possession)
Suicide (frequently though not invariably
associated with demon possession)
Irrational shoplifting
Childhood learning disabilities and behavioral
problems
Various (though obviously not all) physical
illnesses
Mental illnesses like schizophrenia
Posthypnotic suggestion
Haunted houses
Multiple personality disorder (dissociative
identity disorder)
False memories (which can be implanted by
demons in the mind of someone
undergoing recovered memory therapy)
Spontaneous human combustion
Foul and abusive language (when manifested
in a voice different from the individual’s
normal voice)
Cogan notes that playing with Ouija boards,
Dungeons and Dragons, and other role-playing
other games can lead to possession. He further
asserts that certain actions, roles, and tasks attract
possessing spirits:
Illicit sex
Homosexual sex
The viewing of pornography
The use of mind-altering drugs
Hypnosis
Listening to rock music, especially if the
musicians are themselves possessed
Leading a religious cult
Worshiping Satan
Astrologers
Psychics
Finally, Cogan advocates a multiphase program
for overcoming possession, only the first step of
which is becoming saved. The possessed must:
Be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit
Pray to God for the power of Jesus’s blood
Seek a counselor for help
Pray for deliverance
Anticipate resistance by the demon(s); they
might not want to leave easily; expect that
the demon(s) might try to repossess them
Pray regularly
Read the Bible
Attend church regularly
In addition to liberal religious denominations,
most members of secular society naturally do not
accept possession and exorcism as “real.” Such
phenomena are, rather, perceived as mental and
physical disorders. Despite the rejection of literal
possession and exorcism, however, they are such
sensational phenomena that they survive in the
entertainment media, which generates horror story
after horror story involving demonic possession.
Also, the contemporary period has seen what
amounts to a revival of interest in possession and