Exorcisms?

According to a CNN report, the Vatican is now endorsing and encouraging more priests to learn to perform exorcisms. The Father the reporter talked to about this insisted that "the devil" is active and has more opportunity these days to invade people's spirits because they have become distanced from the church. The Father says he knows that someone is possessed by their eyes. He says the priests have gotten away from doing exorcisms in the past couple of hundred years, but the new Pope is now encouraging this training among priests.

My own experiences with exorcism

I've had mixed feelings about the whole issue of "possession". One of the standard explanations for someone suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder is that they are not really "multiple" but demonically possessed. In fact, early descriptions of the disorder are based on people observing someone who is "demonically possessed". I have also known individuals who have been put through exorcisms, horrific, abusive rituals designed to "help" these people recover from the "devil"s possession.

My training in DID included an understanding that those clients thinking they were possessed actually had rejected parts of themselves and "demonized" them in their own minds. I remember one young woman happily proclaiming that she went to a Native American sweat lodge and released the demons during the process. She admitted that perhaps they were not really "demons", but these "parts" of herself, believed they were and had to be released in this way.

Rejecting the "Demons' inside all of us

What I know is that many of us reject parts of ourselves. I was brought up to recognize all races as equal and that any sign of prejudice was a terrible thing. Yet, at an early age I was exposed to a grandfather who was very bigoted and preached about it to my siblings and me. I loved my grandfather dearly; I was his "angel". In order to gain his acceptance, a part of me accepted his view of other races. Yet, when I got home, that view was unacceptable. This required me to reject a part of me that had previously accepted this produced view of other people. I had a hidden part of me that had accepted a view point that I had learned to be incorrect and even ignorant. This shadow part of myself could be considered a "demon" couldn't it?

This part of me became a separate, secluded attitude that most of me didn't know existed. I myself, rejected it and pushed it back outside of my awareness in order to avoid feeling something with which I vehemently disagreed. It became a kind of "enemy within".

The "Demons" aren't really bad

What I have discovered is that we all have these "demons" inside us and until we recognize that they are not "bad", but just parts of us that need our attention they will remain a part of us with the potential to burst out of us at unexpected and unfortunate times.

I had to embrace this little part of me that wanted to be accepted by my grandfather, acknowledging that as the motivation behind the prejudiced beliefs. Then I had to forgive myself for having those beliefs that no longer fit my paradigm. I had to have empathy for the little girl who wanted someone to love her. Its not her fault loving him came with the price of having to believe as he did.

Empathy can heal them

When we can accept these rejected parts of our selves, we don't have to be "exorcised", instead we love the parts of us we formerly rejected, accepting that this part of us was doing the best it could under the circumstances. I've seen this happen with my DID clients, and with my "normal" clients, as well as within myself. It also happens with rejected members of a family or community.

What about you?

Have you ever rejected a part of yourself? I know that we all do it, but have you experienced this in the form of an exorcism? Or in the form of acceptance? Do you think we SHOULD reject parts of ourselves? Tell me what you think, comment below, I'd love to hear from you.