Bay of Fundie

(For the preamble to this article, see my previous post.)

The National Geographic Channel has a series called Is It Real?. One of its episodes is titled “Exorcism”, which they play periodically. As I complained in the last article, the documentary is fairly even-handed. Let’s take a look at it.

The program says that belief in the Devil’s influence over people was waning before the movie The Exorcist was released. As the program put it, this movie “…dragged an ancient Catholic ritual into the spotlight and scared the holy pants off a generation.”

Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Cognitive Psychologist and Memory Expert, says that people felt sick just by watching the movie. They began to feel that they were possessed.

Dr. Joe Nickell, Paranormal Investigator, says that there were numerous reports of people claiming that they were possessed after seeing the film.

Although the movie was released over 30 years ago, its effects are still with us. To quote the program: “Today, exorcism is alive and well and thriving in Rome.”

The Vatican’s Pontifical University of Rome now offers a two-month exorcism class! Sheesh! All this, just because a movie triggered a mass delusion among its viewers (versus a Mass Delusion, which is what you can get any day in a Catholic church just by listening to the priest).

Bob Larson

The documentary actually covers quite a bit of ground in how exorcisms are done and some of the psychological factors involved, but what caught my attention the most was the profile of fundie exorcist Bob Larson (By that, I mean a fundie who conducts exorcisms, not somebody who exorcises the fundie out of people. Alas, if only.).

Narrator: Welcome to one of Bob Larson’s popular exorcism seminars. Larson is all about getting right into the Devil’s face. Larson, a controversial figure, even among Charismatic Christians, has been exorcising demons for the past 30 years.

Larson: There are times when I think half the population has some level of demonization and doesn’t know it.

Narrator: …Lurking behind the eyes of the sad, the hurt, the angry, and the confused, he sees demons preying on human weakness.

And I see him preying on human weakness. It’s pretty obvious by watching this documentary that the people attending his seminars have physical, emotional, psychological, or family problems. He has convinced them that they are possessed. The only thing they are possessed by is gullibility. These people belong in therapy. He is preventing them from seeking that help, by convincing them that a Satanic demon is inside.

I suspect that Larson himself believes that he is confronting demons. Psychologists have to have extensive training and be licensed, because mucking around with somebody’s fears and emotions is dangerous. Yet any self-deluded fundie can hang out his shingle claiming to be an exorcist, and he can have free reign mucking around with somebody’s subconscious. There are no laws or safeguards.

For what it’s worth, his audience looks like it belongs at a Jerry Springer taping.

Narrator: In the last 30 years, Larson claims to have exorcised over 6000 demons. On average, he conducts 20 seminars a month and has lectured in 80 countries worldwide.

Isn’t it great that one of America’s chief exports is ignorance and fear?

Narrator: Heidi Dena has been attending these seminars for over a year. She claims that she’s been tormented by demons since early childhood.

Dena: I’d have nightmares as a little girl, and I’d see demons—really scary demons—in my room. They would come and attack me in my sleep and have sex with me, and it was gross, and it was filthy, and it was disgusting. I’d wake up and I’d say “What the heck is this?”

This woman clearly has psychological issues. She seems to have some sort of anxiety about sex. I don’t know if it’s incest fantasies, real (non-demonic) memories that she is suppressing, or simply that she has been traumatized about sexuality because of a stifling Christian upbringing. She is playing it out in these fantasies. She belongs in therapy.

Dena: I’ve been in mental hospitals. I’ve sought professional help. I’ve done everything that they’ve told me to do. Nothing has helped me at all. And when I started coming here, I’ve slowly gotten relief.…

Narrator: In the past year alone, Heidi has been exorcised over 50 times.

I certainly agree that psychology has many flaws. I would even go so far as to claim that it is barely a science. It doesn’t help everyone equally. But it is the best we have right now. Talk therapy takes a very long time to root out problems. Change therapists. Be patient. Eventually, you will get real relief instead of getting your sex fantasies reinforced and perpetuated.

Narrator: For skeptics, the strange dialog between Heidi and Bob looks more like something else: stage hypnosis, wherein suggestible people act out what a charismatic leader asks of them.

I completely agree with this assessment. The documentary showed Larson’s exorcism of Dena. She was definitely performing. She seemed to be in a trance, and she didn’t seem like the same person.

When I was in Las Vegas last year, I made the mistake of going to a hypnosis show. People did and said things that they wouldn’t otherwise. They definitely seemed to be out of it. This is yet another example of religion exploiting the quirks of our amazing brains and claiming it is supernatural.

Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus says:

It worries me very much for the individuals who are succumbing to this, because perhaps they have a problem that has a real cure…. Instead, they’re spending their time and their resources possibly getting a phony cure that is diverting them away from getting genuine help that would make a difference in their lives.

The other problem Loftus expresses is that these people just serve as examples that draw other people into it.

The documentary covers so much more than just Bob Larson and his stage show. The next time you see it in the National Geographic Channel’s schedule, you should give it a look.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Offline Video, Rationalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.