Let say someone knew your full name and was doing witchcraft with it. Would a change of name, like Abram change to Abraham, help? SO if the person is calling your old name, your spirit will no longer answer cause you've changed your name?

Another question, let's say the same person is using your pictures and doing witchcraft on you. Would plastic surgery weaken the witchcraft. For example, you get a nose job. That nose job changes your nose shape. The image /picture the person has of you in their mind, while they're doing their witchcraft, will be different. So, will the witchcraft even be as effective?

Lastly, say the person changes their full name, and gets a nose job (as a result of a broken nose), will whoever had their previous name or picture be able to effectively continue their witchcraft?

I'm asking for a friend who keeps getting witchcraft attacks by a certain family member.

Name change and plastic surgery isn't the solution your friend should count on. Because even if it works, the witch can simply get hold of a new picture and use the victim's new name. Your friend needs divine spiritual help to destroy any spell or evil spirit tormenting his life, and also protect him or her from future attacks. If he/she can get in touch with me, I can help by giving him a roadmap and guide to solving the problem, or help cure your friend by Allah's help through powerful divine invocations from the Qur'an and Sunnah. This will 100% solve his problem with witchcraft, though witches can still attack him if he becomes spiritually negligent. If you are comfortable with Islamic divine healing, get in touch and I'll help you for free. The solution will come so quickly and with such divine force that will leave your friend with no doubt as to the power of Islamic healing.

SonOfGod40:
∆ Let say someone knew your full name and was doing witchcraft with it. Would a change of name, like Abram change to Abraham, help? SO if the person is calling your old name, your spirit will no longer answer cause you've changed your name?
Another question, let's say the same person is using your pictures and doing witchcraft on you. Would plastic surgery weaken the witchcraft. For example, you get a nose job. That nose job changes your nose shape. The image /picture the person has of you in their mind, while they're doing their witchcraft, will be different. So, will the witchcraft even be as effective?
Lastly, say the person changes their full name, and gets a nose job (as a result of a broken nose), will whoever had their previous name or picture be able to effectively continue their witchcraft?
I'm asking for a friend who keeps getting witchcraft attacks by a certain family member.

Your friend is likely suffering from paranoia and requires some serious mental health treatment. Please get him an appointment immediately with a professional counselor or a psychiatrist and help convince him to work through those fears of his for his own good..

anyone who believes in this witchcraft stuff will be affected regardless, because anything negative happening to you in the future (that normally happens to anyone), you will automatically attribute it to witchcraft.

as if nothing negative was ever gonna happen to you... lol!

MrBrownJay1:
anyone who believes in this witchcraft stuff will be affected regardless, because anything negative happening to you in the future (that normally happens to anyone), you will automatically attribute it to witchcraft.

as if nothing negative was ever gonna happen to you... lol!

Witchcraft is real. It's affecting millions worldwide, espcially in Africa. Only those who are ignorant of the Devil's methods deny the existence of witchcraft. Some people continue to deny it until they become victim before realizing it's true.

To the original poster, what exactly makes your friend think he's been hunted by witches? For example, did someone threaten him and he is experiencing the threat? Is he having nightmares, hearing strange voices, having health problems with no apparent cause, having halucinations, persistent insomnia with no medical explanation, experiencing unreasonable fear when he wakes up from sleep, etc.?

I can help your friend, and it won't cost him any money. Just contact me at naturallysupernatural44@gmail.com. When looking for a solution, you need to keep any bias aside.

paxonel:
Another selling philosophy of pastors in church.
They sell this philosophy of witch and demons having power to manipulate people to church members to make them keep fearing the unknown that does not exist.
And when they succeed in making the people to fear, they will now say come for deliverance, then in the process you must pay tithe and offering now.

At the end of these whole thing, their target is just money and nothing more

This may be the case with pastors, but it's not the case with Islam. I don't want to argue with you over this. I want to demonstrate it. Because arguments don't convince people anymore. I want to demonstrate the power of seeking solutions through the Qur'an and Sunnah. Insha Allah, I'll demonstrate it on you if you cooperate. Then you won't deny the existence of the spirit world or super natural healing.

If you have any health problems bothering you now, or even an injury that is cause you pain, I'll pray for a relief from that pain and you'll experience it in such a way that leaves no doubt in your heart as to the source of that relief. While reliefs can be immediate, a complete cure usually takes time and requires patience and perseverence. I'll do this over the phone or a voice chat online.

DuaWorrior:
Witchcraft is real. It's affecting millions worldwide, espcially in Africa. Only those who are ignorant of the Devil's methods deny the existence of witchcraft. Some people continue to deny it until they become victim before realizing it's true

ok sir, and i guess its only in Africa and poor countries that witchcraft is real, abi? witchcraft and religion is the same BS used to brainwash yeye people. no wonder so many clueless people die from ritual killings etc when ignorant people believe in so much mambo jambo.

MrBrownJay1:


ok sir, and i guess its only in Africa and poor countries that witchcraft is real, abi? witchcraft and religion is the same BS used to brainwash yeye people. no wonder so many clueless people die from ritual killings etc when ignorant people believe in so much mambo jambo.

I said "especially" in africa, which means others are also affected. Even Western psychiatrists are waking up to the reality of super natural forces harming people. please do some research before you criticise what you know little about. Witchcraft is real. I've seen and experienced it firsthand. Just like you, I used to deny it, until the attacked me. I felt it and also saw it in the lives of other victims. It took real life experience for me to accept that witchcraft is real.

DuaWorrior:
I said "especially" in africa, which means others are also affected. Even Western psychiatrists are waking up to the reality of super natural forces harming people. please do some research before you criticise what you know little about. Witchcraft is real. I've seen and experienced it firsthand. Just like you, I used to deny it, until the attacked me. I felt it and also saw it in the lives of other victims. It took real life experience for me to accept that witchcraft is real.

no proper psychiatrist on earth will tell you about supernatural forces and/or witchcraft... abeg dont confuse Schizophrenia, split personality disorder etc with some yeye supernatural forces etc.

what you have experienced firsthand is what many people around the world experience too, and which has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with witchcraft, and all to do with LIFE. the problem here is that you people are genuinely MENTALLY SICK and instead of getting proper medical help, you will rather say it is witchcraft. there is nothing wrong with saying that you have mental problem and getting help you desperately require, but instead you people rather want to blame your madness on some yeye invisible natural forces, and act as if you are sane. lol!

paxonel:
Another selling philosophy of pastors in church.
They sell this philosophy of witch and demons having power to manipulate people to church members to make them keep fearing the unknown that does not exist.
And when they succeed in making the people to fear, they will now say come for deliverance, then in the process you must pay tithe and offering now.

At the end of these whole thing, their target is just money and nothing more

exactly... they use fear to brainwash and indoctrinate these lost souls. they will tell them about hell after death, so that they can manipulate them all their lives. they will tell them that almighty god is their savior, while even a blind man can see that their supposed god is powerless to protect anyone;

i remember about 10yrs ago when a group of xtians in the UK (who had HIV) listened to their pastor who claim that he could save them with prayers and that they should stop taking their meds.... the poor fools all died!
here is the story: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-14406818

MrBrownJay1:


no proper psychiatrist on earth will tell you about supernatural forces and/or witchcraft... abeg dont confuse Schizophrenia, split personality disorder etc with some yeye supernatural forces etc.

what you have experienced firsthand is what many people around the world experience too, and which has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with witchcraft, and all to do with LIFE. the problem here is that you people are genuinely MENTALLY SICK and instead of getting proper medical help, you will rather say it is witchcraft. there is nothing wrong with saying that you have mental problem and getting help you desperately require, but instead you people rather want to blame your madness on some yeye invisible natural forces, and act as if you are sane. lol!

You mention a word you probably didn't even research. Here's a Washington Post article by a professor and practising psychiatry about demonic possessions and evil spirits. Maybe you'll be telling me next that his mentally ill and you are the sane person since you reject the existence of evil and invisible creatures and forces. Try to read the entire post and research further. If you are still not convinced after further research, let me know and I will try to help you understand another way.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/01/as-a-psychiatrist-i-diagnose-mental-illness-and-sometimes-demonic-possession/
an interesting quote from the article:
"The same habits that shape what I do as a professor and psychiatrist — open-mindedness, respect for evidence and compassion for suffering people — led me to aid in the work of discerning attacks by what I believe are evil spirits and, just as critically, differentiating these extremely rare events from medical conditions."

other quotes: "I have personally encountered these rationally inexplicable features, along with other paranormal phenomena. My vantage is unusual: As a consulting doctor, I think I have seen more cases of possession than any other physician in the world."

"But I believe I’ve seen the real thing. Assaults upon individuals are classified either as “demonic possessions” or as the slightly more common but less intense attacks usually called “oppressions.” A possessed individual may suddenly, in a type of trance, voice statements of astonishing venom and contempt for religion, while understanding and speaking various foreign languages previously unknown to them. The subject might also exhibit enormous strength or even the extraordinarily rare phenomenon of levitation. (I have not witnessed a levitation myself, but half a dozen people I work with vow that they’ve seen it in the course of their exorcisms.) He or she might demonstrate “hidden knowledge” of all sorts of things — like how a stranger’s loved ones died, what secret sins she has committed, even where people are at a given moment. These are skills that cannot be explained except by special psychic or preternatural ability."

JUST READ AND RESEARCH FURTHER.

DuaWorrior:

You mention a word you probably didn't even research. Here's a Washington Post article by a professor and practising psychiatry about demonic possessions and evil spirits. Maybe you'll be telling me next that his mentally ill and you are the sane person since you reject the existence of evil and invisible creatures and forces. Try to read the entire post and research further. If you are still not convinced after further research, let me know and I will try to help you understand another way.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/01/as-a-psychiatrist-i-diagnose-mental-illness-and-sometimes-demonic-possession/
an interesting quote from the article:
"The same habits that shape what I do as a professor and psychiatrist — open-mindedness, respect for evidence and compassion for suffering people — led me to aid in the work of discerning attacks by what I believe are evil spirits and, just as critically, differentiating these extremely rare events from medical conditions."

other quotes: "I have personally encountered these rationally inexplicable features, along with other paranormal phenomena. My vantage is unusual: As a consulting doctor, I think I have seen more cases of possession than any other physician in the world."

"But I believe I’ve seen the real thing. Assaults upon individuals are classified either as “demonic possessions” or as the slightly more common but less intense attacks usually called “oppressions.” A possessed individual may suddenly, in a type of trance, voice statements of astonishing venom and contempt for religion, while understanding and speaking various foreign languages previously unknown to them. The subject might also exhibit enormous strength or even the extraordinarily rare phenomenon of levitation. (I have not witnessed a levitation myself, but half a dozen people I work with vow that they’ve seen it in the course of their exorcisms.) He or she might demonstrate “hidden knowledge” of all sorts of things — like how a stranger’s loved ones died, what secret sins she has committed, even where people are at a given moment. These are skills that cannot be explained except by special psychic or preternatural ability."

JUST READ AND RESEARCH FURTHER.

do you know that some practicing doctors believe in juju&rituals etc ?! there are many yeye ignorant fools with a degree, just as there are many yeye ignorant religious fools... just because ONE psychiatrist believe in demonic forces, wont change the fact that 99.99999% of psychiatrist will never diagnose someone having demonic attack. thats absurd. furthermore nothing in their educational journey point to any of the above mambo jambo about demonic possession.... only religious people believe in that nonsense. exorcism has absolutely NO PLACE in modern psychiatric practice...
any religious fool can automatically say that schizophrenia is demonic attack, any religious fool can automatically say that any mental disorder is a demonic attack (because its easier to say than to say that they are MAD/INSANE... for centuries people believe that an exorcism was the solution to such mental illness, but today any intelligent person who studied psychiatry understand that this has nothing to do with demonic attack and all to do with schizophrenia and mental disorder etc

as for your above article that cant be read until you pay a subscription, i certainly wont read it

MrBrownJay1:


do you know that some practicing doctors believe in juju&rituals etc ?! there are many yeye ignorant fools with a degree, just as there are many yeye ignorant religious fools... just because ONE psychiatrist believe in demonic forces, wont change the fact that 99.99999% of psychiatrist will never diagnose someone having demonic attack. thats absurd. furthermore nothing in their educational journey point to any of the above mambo jambo about demonic possession.... only religious people believe in that nonsense. exorcism has absolutely NO PLACE in modern psychiatric practice...
any religious fool can automatically say that schizophrenia is demonic attack, any religious fool can automatically say that any mental disorder is a demonic attack... for centuries people believe that an exorcism was the solution to such mental illness, but today any intelligent person who studied psychiatry understand that this has nothing to do with demonic attack and all to do with schizophrenia and mental disorder etc

as for your above article that cant be read until you pay a subscription, i certainly wont read it

Please, can you read up on the curse of the pharaohs? I'm sure you'll find the historical evidences irrefutable.
Also, read the article I linked to and do further research before commenting. Many pshychiatrists believe there's a super-natural dimension to some illnesses. However, if you want a demonstration of whether super-natural forces exist, we can try that on you or a loved one by solving one of your most pressing problems. For example, somebody owes you money and you are sure they don't want to pay. You want that person to pay you whether he/she likes it or not. We can try that and see there's an invisible force that can influence people against their wish. We could also try this on health problems too . . . like pain you are feeling, or you want to be rid of a troublesome neighbour or colleague at work that keeps harming or oppressing you. Just anything you currently don't know how to solve.

DuaWorrior:

Please, can you read up on the curse of the pharaohs? I'm sure you'll find the historical evidences irrefutable.

bro stop talking about how people solved medical issues centuries ago... a few 100 years ago, it was pretty normal for clueless people to talk about demonic attack, exorcism and what not, but in the 21st century, we know better....same as back in the days, we couldnt help people who needed heart transplant and now we can fix that. expecting someone today to think like the doctors back 1000 years ago is absurd.

there is NO DEMONSTRATION that you can bring here that will confirm the mambo jambo you claim (aka demonic attack, levitation etc) NONE!!!! you and all the religious brainwashed people are mistaking schizophrenia, split personality and mental illness with demonic attack, while it has absolutely nothing to do with the issue.

i cant read your article as its only for people who paid for subscrition, feel free to paste here what is said in the article.

For example, somebody owes you money and you are sure they don't want to pay. You want that person to pay you whether he/she likes it or not. We can try that and see there's an invisible force that can influence people against their wish. We could also try this on health problems too . . . like pain you are feeling, or you want to be rid of a troublesome neighbour or colleague at work that keeps harming or oppressing you. Just anything you currently don't know how to solve.

the above is the most foolish thing i have read today by some yeye ritualist and their nonsense mindset. but hey, you are entitled to your opinion just as i am entitled to mine.... and i can tell you that what you are claiming is utter rubbish from a very deranged person. so now from demonic attack, you are claiming you can use that same demonic force to ask people to pay you?! people thinking like you do, are the same one who do ritual killing to get rich...BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
***spit on floor***

IF ANYONE BELIEVES THAT WITCHCRAFT CAN MAKE YOU RICH; WITCHCRAFT CAN MAKE YOU HEALTHY; THAT WITCHCRAFT CAN MAKE PEOPLE DO WHAT YOU DESIRE; THEN YOU SIR ARE SUFFERING FROM MENTAL ILLNESS!

MrBrownJay1:

there is NO DEMONSTRATION that you can bring here that will confirm the mambo jambo you claim (aka demonic attack, levitation etc) NONE!!!!

i cant read your article as its only for people who paid for subscrition, feel free to paste here what is said in the article.

the above is the most foolish thing i have read today by some yeye ritualist and their nonsense mindset. but hey, you are entitled to your opinion just as i am entitled to mine.... and i can tell you that what you are claiming is utter rubbish from a very deranged person. so now from demonic attack, you are claiming you can use that same demonic force to ask people to pay you?! people thinking like you do, are the same one who do ritual killing to get rich...BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
***spit on floor***

IF ANYONE BELIEVES THAT WITCHCRAFT CAN MAKE YOU RICH; WITCHCRAFT CAN MAKE YOU HEALTHY; THAT WITCHCRAFT CAN MAKE PEOPLE DO WHAT YOU DESIRE; THEN YOU SIR ARE SUFFERING FROM MENTAL ILLNESS!

I'll make two replies to your post: one about your insults and the other is the article you asked me to post cos you don't have subscription with the site.
You've called me a ritualist and deranged despite the fact that you have no proof and I never insulted you. Seems you have to learn the hard way.

MrBrownJay1:


bro stop talking about how people solved medical issues centuries ago... a few 100 years ago, it was pretty normal for clueless people to talk about demonic attack, exorcism and what not, but in the 21st century, we know better....same as back in the days, we couldnt help people who needed heart transplant and now we can fix that. expecting someone today to think like the doctors back 1000 years ago is absurd.

i cant read your article as its only for people who paid for subscrition, feel free to paste here what is said in the article.

Here's the article your requested

As a psychiatrist, I diagnose mental illness. Also, I help spot demonic possession.
How a scientist learned to work with exorcists.


By Richard Gallagher
July 1, 2016 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Matt Rota for The Washington Post

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In the late 1980s, I was introduced to a self-styled Satanic high priestess. She called herself a witch and dressed the part, with flowing dark clothes and black eye shadow around to her temples. In our many discussions, she acknowledged worshipping Satan as his “queen.”

I’m a man of science and a lover of history; after studying the classics at Princeton, I trained in psychiatry at Yale and in psychoanalysis at Columbia. That background is why a Catholic priest had asked my professional opinion, which I offered pro bono, about whether this woman was suffering from a mental disorder. This was at the height of the national panic about Satanism. (In a case that helped induce the hysteria, Virginia McMartin and others had recently been charged with alleged Satanic ritual abuse at a Los Angeles preschool; the charges were later dropped.) So I was inclined to skepticism. But my subject’s behavior exceeded what I could explain with my training. She could tell some people their secret weaknesses, such as undue pride. She knew how individuals she’d never known had died, including my mother and her fatal case of ovarian cancer. Six people later vouched to me that, during her exorcisms, they heard her speaking multiple languages, including Latin, completely unfamiliar to her outside of her trances. This was not psychosis; it was what I can only describe as paranormal ability. I concluded that she was possessed. Much later, she permitted me to tell her story.

Watch: Nationwide exorcism performed on Mexico

The priest who had asked for my opinion of this bizarre case was the most experienced exorcist in the country at the time, an erudite and sensible man. I had told him that, even as a practicing Catholic, I wasn’t likely to go in for a lot of hocus-pocus. “Well,” he replied, “unless we thought you were not easily fooled, we would hardly have wanted you to assist us.”

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So began an unlikely partnership. For the past two-and-a-half decades and over several hundred consultations, I’ve helped clergy from multiple denominations and faiths to filter episodes of mental illness — which represent the overwhelming majority of cases — from, literally, the devil’s work. It’s an unlikely role for an academic physician, but I don’t see these two aspects of my career in conflict. The same habits that shape what I do as a professor and psychiatrist — open-mindedness, respect for evidence and compassion for suffering people — led me to aid in the work of discerning attacks by what I believe are evil spirits and, just as critically, differentiating these extremely rare events from medical conditions.

Is it possible to be a sophisticated psychiatrist and believe that evil spirits are, however seldom, assailing humans? Most of my scientific colleagues and friends say no, because of their frequent contact with patients who are deluded about demons, their general skepticism of the supernatural, and their commitment to employ only standard, peer-reviewed treatments that do not potentially mislead (a definite risk) or harm vulnerable patients. But careful observation of the evidence presented to me in my career has led me to believe that certain extremely uncommon cases can be explained no other way.

* * * * * * *

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The Vatican does not track global or countrywide exorcism, but in my experience and according to the priests I meet, demand is rising. The United States is home to about 50 “stable” exorcists — those who have been designated by bishops to combat demonic activity on a semi-regular basis — up from just 12 a decade ago, according to the Rev. Vincent Lampert, an Indianapolis-based priest-exorcist who is active in the International Association of Exorcists. (He receives about 20 inquiries per week, double the number from when his bishop appointed him in 2005.) The Catholic Church has responded by offering greater resources for clergy members who wish to address the problem. In 2010, for instance, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops organized a meeting in Baltimore for interested clergy. In 2014, Pope Francis formally recognized the IAE, 400 members of which are to convene in Rome this October. Members believe in such strange cases because they are constantly called upon to help. (I served for a time as a scientific adviser on the group’s governing board.)

[No, really. Take a vacation. Your co-workers will manage just fine without you.]

Unfortunately, not all clergy involved in this complex field are as cautious as the priest who first approached me. In some circles, there is a tendency to become overly preoccupied with putative demonic explanations and to see the devil everywhere. Fundamentalist misdiagnoses and absurd or even dangerous “treatments,” such as beating victims, have sometimes occurred, especially in developing countries. This is perhaps why exorcism has a negative connotation in some quarters. People with psychological problems should receive psychological treatment.

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But I believe I’ve seen the real thing. Assaults upon individuals are classified either as “demonic possessions” or as the slightly more common but less intense attacks usually called “oppressions.” A possessed individual may suddenly, in a type of trance, voice statements of astonishing venom and contempt for religion, while understanding and speaking various foreign languages previously unknown to them. The subject might also exhibit enormous strength or even the extraordinarily rare phenomenon of levitation. (I have not witnessed a levitation myself, but half a dozen people I work with vow that they’ve seen it in the course of their exorcisms.) He or she might demonstrate “hidden knowledge” of all sorts of things — like how a stranger’s loved ones died, what secret sins she has committed, even where people are at a given moment. These are skills that cannot be explained except by special psychic or preternatural ability.


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I have personally encountered these rationally inexplicable features, along with other paranormal phenomena. My vantage is unusual: As a consulting doctor, I think I have seen more cases of possession than any other physician in the world.

[I’m a transgender Republican. My party has betrayed me.]

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Most of the people I evaluate in this role suffer from the more prosaic problems of a medical disorder. Anyone even faintly familiar with mental illnesses knows that individuals who think they are being attacked by malign spirits are generally experiencing nothing of the sort. Practitioners see psychotic patients all the time who claim to see or hear demons; histrionic or highly suggestible individuals, such as those suffering from dissociative identity syndromes; and patients with personality disorders who are prone to misinterpret destructive feelings, in what exorcists sometimes call a “pseudo-possession,” via the defense mechanism of an externalizing projection. But what am I supposed to make of patients who unexpectedly start speaking perfect Latin?

I approach each situation with an initial skepticism. I technically do not make my own “diagnosis” of possession but inform the clergy that the symptoms in question have no conceivable medical cause.

I am aware of the way many psychiatrists view this sort of work. While the American Psychiatric Association has no official opinion on these affairs, the field (like society at large) is full of unpersuadable skeptics and occasionally doctrinaire materialists who are often oddly vitriolic in their opposition to all things spiritual. My job is to assist people seeking help, not to convince doctors who are not subject to suasion. Yet I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners nowadays who are open to entertaining such hypotheses. Many believe exactly what I do, though they may be reluctant to speak out.

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* * * * * * *

As a man of reason, I’ve had to rationalize the seemingly irrational. Questions about how a scientifically trained physician can believe “such outdated and unscientific nonsense,” as I’ve been asked, have a simple answer. I honestly weigh the evidence. I have been told simplistically that levitation defies the laws of gravity, and, well, of course it does! We are not dealing here with purely material reality, but with the spiritual realm. One cannot force these creatures to undergo lab studies or submit to scientific manipulation; they will also hardly allow themselves to be easily recorded by video equipment, as skeptics sometimes demand. (The official Catholic Catechism holds that demons are sentient and possess their own wills; as they are fallen angels, they are also craftier than humans. That’s how they sow confusion and seed doubt, after all.) Nor does the church wish to compromise a sufferer’s privacy, any more than doctors want to compromise a patient’s confidentiality.

[Feminists treat men badly. It’s bad for feminism.]

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Ignorance and superstition have often surrounded stories of demonic possession in various cultures, and surely many alleged episodes can be explained by fraud, chicanery or mental pathology. But anthropologists agree that nearly all cultures have believed in spirits, and the vast majority of societies (including our own) have recorded dramatic stories of spirit possession. Despite varying interpretations, multiple depictions of the same phenomena in astonishingly consistent ways offer cumulative evidence of their credibility.

As a psychoanalyst, a blanket rejection of the possibility of demonic attacks seems less logical, and often wishful in nature, than a careful appraisal of the facts. As I see it, the evidence for possession is like the evidence for George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. In both cases, written historical accounts with numerous sound witnesses testify to their accuracy.

In the end, however, it was not an academic or dogmatic view that propelled me into this line of work. I was asked to consult about people in pain. I have always thought that, if requested to help a tortured person, a physician should not arbitrarily refuse to get involved. Those who dismiss these cases unwittingly prevent patients from receiving the help they desperately require, either by failing to recommend them for psychiatric treatment (which most clearly need) or by not informing their spiritual ministers that something beyond a mental or other illness seems to be the issue. For any person of science or faith, it should be impossible to turn one’s back on a tormented soul.


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By Richard Gallagher
Richard Gallagher is a board-certified psychiatrist and a professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College. He is at work on a book about demonic possession in the United States.

Let's be more civil in our converstaions please.