| Alistair.J.L.Maclean@googlemail.com 2008-01-16, 6:56 pm |
| On 15 Jan, 13:49, "Judson McClendon" <ju...@sunvaley0.com> wrote:
> "tim Josling" <tejgcc_nos...@westnet.com.au> wrote:
> The people I'm talking about are like that. Unless they told
> you, you simply wouldn't know or suspect. One of them was an attractive
> woman who attended the same church as I did. She was as sweet and gentle
> a person as you could imagine; the picture of a gentle, cultured and
> respectable wife. But years before she had been studying to be a witch.
There is a difference between the kind of occultist who could loosely
be described as a Satanist (and they can be nice people too) and a
practitioner of Wicca (which is a valid and acceptable religion pre-
dating christianity). Unfortunately witches tend to be tarred with the
same brush as Satanists much as most christians are tarred by the
fundamentalist brush.
> I've known several such people, and they all relate consistent details about
> the occult. Primarily that it's real and it's dangerous.
>
> Further, there are certain "psychological" disorders that are thought by many
> mental health professionals to be demonic oppression, rather than just mental
> illness. Multiple personality disorder is a major one.
I have a friend who suffers from paranoid-schizophrenia. His condition
was, until recently, exacerbated by heavy use of skunk. I can state
categorically that, even though he hears voices telling him to kill,
he is not possessed by any demons. Aside from the debatable point that
I do not believe in demons, ghosts or ghouls, my discussions with him
and my reading about recent research into schizophrenia leads me to
believe that what is happening is a mild dissociative behaviour
(similar but not quite as severe as the out-of-body experiences people
claim).
If any mental health professional starts talking about demons then
they should be struck off or lose their licence to practice. There is
no room for quackery in medicine. Demonic possession is only sloppy
thinking by these professionals.
> I've discussed this
> with several practicing clinical psychiatrists and psychologists who agree.
> My daughter minored in psych, and one of her professors, also a practicing
> psychiatrist, believes the same thing.
He should be summarily dismissed and his department closed.
> That's not the "official position",
> of course. But for those who actually deal with people suffering from such
> problems, there are aspects that just can't be explained as a pure mental
> disorder.
Then they should acknowledge their ignorance and restrain from
practising quackery.
>
|