10-22-2008, 04:42 AM | #51 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Kaysville, UT
Posts: 3,151
|
You don't think they can be? Not saying they always (or even very often) will be. But do you believe that Christ could heal the worst mental illness out there and make them whole if he so chose to? I do.
__________________
Still fat ... |
10-22-2008, 04:45 AM | #52 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,506
|
Did nobody here go on a mission to a third world country?
Who didn't cast out a devil or two on their mission? Who didn't have a comp who tried to run into oncoming traffic while under the influence? Nobody have an ill educated national speak perfect english to you while in a fit of rage? |
10-22-2008, 06:07 PM | #53 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Oregon
Posts: 102
|
Many of the strange things I have encountered in my lifetime have been the result of an indiviudual's mental state. However, on some rare ocassions, I have experienced the presence of what I would consider evil...whether an individual was possessed or not, the feeling I experienced was real and there was no need for me to remain in the presence of that individual.
I was raised in a very superstitious family that believed not only in demonic possessions but also in faith healers. As I kid I couldn't help but believe those things were real. My mother used to take the family just about every Sunday to a faith healer across the border into a Mexican town. The faith healer was a woman that would take on the spirit of a dead priest named el nino Fidencio. Hundreds of people would come every Sunday seeking comfort, healings, direction, etc...I still remember how this sweet old lady went through the weekly ritual of becoming possessed by the dead priest. I would describe the end result as the lady entering a trance state. What was amazing, she would remain in that trance state the whole day and would see hundreds of people. Was that real? It was to a little kid and it was scary at the time. To this date my mother swears that this lady healed me from an ailment that would have taken my life. Other than occasionally sharing the above faith healer's experience, I subscribe to the belief that less time you devote to discussing demonic possessions or experiences, the less of an influence the adversary can have have in your life. |
10-22-2008, 06:10 PM | #54 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Orange County, CA
Posts: 9,483
|
i taught an elder in the MTC that had to leave the MTC early and go home. He kind of went bananas. Dont think it was possession, just mental illness.
he wrote me a letter a few weeks after he went home and explained that he was having all kinds of hallucinations.....many of them involving rabbits all over his MTC dorm room. It was like Watership Down on acid. I still have the letter. I should post excerpts.
__________________
Fitter. Happier. More Productive. "Everyone is against me. Everyone is fawning for 3D's attention and defending him." -- SeattleUte |
10-22-2008, 06:14 PM | #55 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 10,665
|
Belief in demons, possession and such is a 100% reliable test for identifying the truly, profoundly ignorant.
__________________
Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster |
10-22-2008, 06:16 PM | #56 | |
Board Pinhead
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In the basement of my house, Murray, Utah.
Posts: 15,941
|
Quote:
__________________
"The beauty of baseball is not having to explain it." - Chuck Shriver "This is now the joke that stupid people laugh at." - Christopher Hitchens on IQ jokes about GWB. Last edited by il Padrino Ute; 10-22-2008 at 06:21 PM. |
|
10-22-2008, 06:34 PM | #57 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Oregon
Posts: 102
|
|
10-22-2008, 07:44 PM | #58 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 1,484
|
I didn't believe in demonic possession, until I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
__________________
"Now I say that I know the meaning of my life: 'To live for God, for my soul.' And this meaning, in spite of its clearness, is mysterious and marvelous. Such is the meaning of all existence." Levin, Anna Karenina, Part 8, Chapter 12 |
10-22-2008, 09:21 PM | #59 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,589
|
Wow...I don't know where to even start with this thread.
Suffice it to say, I almost completely agree with SU. I think most people in the medical field, who have to deal with the episodes of "possession" on any sort of regular basis, would agree with SU. That's not meant as any sort of medical arrogance; no one is more aware than doctors of the limitations of medical knowledge (a whole separate thread if we want to get into that...). But there is potentially significant harm in attributing these phenomena to spiritual causes, and ignoring very real underlying medical issues. This isn't hypothetical either--it happens frequently on a smaller scale with the person suffering from depression who's just told to pray harder. We already have a subconscious bias against mental illness (the area where the majority of these episodes seem to involve) having any sort of biochemical basis; we don't need anything else contributing to this. I won't deny the beneficial impact of faith. I just see too much overreliance on it, or a misunderstanding of what faith involves. If I were to choose between SU and Christian Science, I'll take SU's view. |
10-22-2008, 09:34 PM | #60 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,589
|
Quote:
I'd hate to see your opinion of someone in the midst of a psychotic break. Last edited by ERCougar; 10-22-2008 at 09:46 PM. |
|
Bookmarks |
|
|