No Exorcists, Not Even “Gentle” Ones, Needed Here
December 26, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Just when you think you’ve heard about most every type of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) that might be used to “treat” autistic persons, you read about another one: Spirit release therapy. In the December 28th National Catholic Reporter, Stafford Betty, professor of Religious Studies at California State University-Bakersfield, writes about spirit release therapy, in which “troublesome or malevolent spirits who have attached themselves to their victims” are released. Those who practice this therapy are not religious healers, Prof. Betty emphasizes, but
secular healers, some of them licensed psychiatrists or psychologists, who have discovered, often by accident, that this new therapy works better than what they learned in medical or graduate school. They tell us that too often drug therapy only masks symptoms, and talk therapy reaches only as deep as the patient’s conscious mind can go. But “spirit release” usually heals, often permanently. Not only does it heal the client; it heals the attached (or “possessing”) spirit.
After discussing different types of spirits—”EB” (”earth bound”) and “DFE” (”dark force entities”)—Prof. Betty notes:
Most of us have a child or relative or friend whose life is shattered by depression, sexual dysphoria, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism or a host of other ailments. What if you were told that there was a healer who could get to the bottom of the problem and heal it, but that the source of the problem was probably an attached spirit? Would you go for it? Could you open your mind to the possibility that your sister’s untreatable 30-year-long bulimia could be stopped dead in its tracks by identifying the spirit behind the disease, releasing it into the light, and then teaching her how to protect against a future attachment?
All in this movement hope that you would. They see the procedure not as a throwback to medieval times when demoniacs were put to death, but as an advance. William Woolger, an internationally renowned transpersonal psychologist, sees it as “the next and essential stage in the development of psychology, a kind of return to the source.”
Prof. Betty is in earnest but, nonetheless, what he is describing here—suggesting that an autistic child or a person with an eating disorder or OCD has some kind of bad-doing spirit causing him or her to have their disorder—does seem a “throwback to medieval times.” Call me close-minded ; I know there’s no need to exorcize any sort of spirit or evil being out of my son, and not by any (in Prof. Barry’s words) “gentle exorcist.” Prof. Betty seems to be suggesting a view of autism, schizophrenia, bulimia, and other neuropsychiatric and psychiatric conditions that is very much a throwback to beliefs that autistic and other persons were “possessed” by evil spirits. If one believes that autistic persons need an exorcist, there’s a lot about autism that one needs to learn and open one’s mind to.
Can it get any more bizarre? Distracts so much from the real issues of equal and individualized education and so forth. Good for you for keeping the spotlight of sanity burning.
Mother of Mary. I thought this was 2007, not 1007.
Any evidence-based outcome or clinical reports on this, or only ads and the writeups by those who already buy into it?
Usually when I hear “open your mind”, it means–suspend evaluation and believe as we do. I would say that Dr. Betty is treading a tricky ethical line only thinly differentiated from advertising and testimonial, and using both her academic title and the unidentified “psychologists and psychiatrists” as appeal to authority.
While part of me believes that this as stated is relatively benign compared to some things suggested and may have some kind of placebo effect for some, the concern is that “opening one’s mind” or more correctly, opening one’s mind on someone else’s behalf, accepting the possibility of spirit possession as cause can lead to the not-so-gentle kind of exorcism–which has resulted in 0 improvements, to my knowledge, but documented deaths and abuse.
It is also another distraction from the real issues that don’t need any speculation–ethical treatment of the differenced, education, employment, social supports and program coordination.
I suspect exorcism is no less effective than ABA. I would be interested in seeing a controlled study with adult outcomes published where one group had exorcism and the other group had ABA.
Sad. And knowing that it’s not a religious practice, is frightening.
I wonder when Harold will be by to ask “what is the alternative” you propose if not exorcism.
Ha! And I just finished reading a bit about crystal and indigo children (equally scary). Exorcism seems just another thing to be added to the list of “to do” in terms of “treatments” parents will be using. Sad enough that people honestly believe it.
Cliff
1007—–7 (BCE!).
Ive heard this before, and still find it hard to believe in this day and age!!
Exorcism, eh? Well, ain’t that just dandy! Here I thought it was scientistically proven that autism was caused by too much blood. So what am I supposed to do with all these leeches?
Sheesh.
Leeches—-maybe a wand and a spell or two might come in handy……
Egad. What will they revert to next?
Though maybe exorcism is about as effective as some of the other treatments for eating disorders, like equine therapy.
Prof. Betty seems to be lumping together a number of “disorders,” too, without suggesting specific knowledge of any of them.
Pardon my bluntness, but how is one supposed to teach methods to ‘prevent a re-attachment’ in a person who has no communication.
This is not very well thought out.
The holy-waterboarding doesn’t do anything but cause PTSD.
It’s slightly scary to consider that someone (Dr. Betty?) actually considers exorcism a legitimate treatment.
Maybe more like very scary, even…..
As a person of faith who also has Bipolar Disorder, I know first-hand the value of spiritual treatment such as prayer, laying on of hands, and Scriptural teaching. I would never, never, advise anyone to rely on these exclusively. God gave us doctors and medicines to promote good health – mental and physical as well as, to some degree, spiritual.