"Possessed" people

[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by fusnik11

Wait, so am I the only one who experienced this on their mission:

a. Companions punching a hole in a cinderblock wall and afterwards handling 5 Elders physically who outweighed him collectively by over a thousand lbs....

b. Companions attempting to commit suicide by walking into a freeway's oncoming traffic....

c. Women who are able to ward off 5 grown men.....

d. Companions who write letters in perfect english describing how he is going to kill you, who grew up in the jungle and is not educated.....

e. Random dudes approaching you in the street, calling you by your first name, and telling you to get out of his area.....

As one can read I had some very interesting experiences on my mission, and attribute a few of them to mental disorders, but have no logical explanation for the others.

All unexplainable instances. Well, if you haven't ever seen anyone tripped on meth or coke or floridly psychotic.

But yeah...it's demonic possession.

How come these things always happen in uneducated areas with poor medical care? Shouldn't that tell you something?

[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by RockyBalboa

Why always so full of contempt and indignation?

Can't speak for SU, but some of the beliefs insinuated in this thread really irritate me because of the negative consequences that can result. And it's not a hypothetical.

[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by BlueHair

Some things aren't choices. Some people are not ABLE to believe. It's not really about choice. I doubt SU could choose to believe any more than you could choose to believe in Santa Clause now that you don't believe in him anymore. Sorry if I made inacurrate assumptions about your belief in Santa.

I think this is a really interesting point, if a little unrelated to the thread. How much control do you have over believing something? To me, belief seems to describe more of a guttoral response than a conscious action. Yet the injunction "Doubt not, but be believing" would imply that there is some sort of choice involved.

[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by fusnik11

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?

No on all counts.

Of course, I served in a modern industrialized nation with well-educated citizens and good medical care.

That's what our society needs--to step back to the middle ages.

[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

I went on a mission to teach people about the Gospel, not to flex my new Melchizedek Priesthood muscle.

LOL. You obviously don't realize how much chicks dig MP muscle.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by ERCougar

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.

BDB, you owe me an apology.