Demonic Possession, The Conspiracy Show,  Ep.108 - video Dailymotion

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The Conspiracy Show with Richard Syrett Season 1 Episode 8 Demonic Possession and Exorcisms The religious practice known as exorcism is examined as well as claims of demonic possession. Richard travels to a Catholic seminary in Yonkers, New York where he interviews a board certified psychiatrist who alleges he was involved with ‘an authentic case of demonic possession.” A skeptic dismisses demonic possession as a relic of the dark ages. Richard delves into the religious practice known as exorcism and investigates what a board certified psychiatrist has described as 'an authentic case of demonic possession.'  Broadcast personality Richard Syrett creates a calm, rational platform on which stars from the worlds of conspiracy thought, the paranormal, alternate health can engage in high quality discourse in these subject arenas. Directors: Jalal Merhi, Chris Power Writer: Richard Syrett, Ron Craig Starring: Richard Syrett, Richard Crouse, Nelson Thall, Jim Marrs, Michael Shermer, Jeffrey Steinberg

Transcript

00:00A young woman who had been involved in witchcraft and who was supposed to take over the leadership

00:18of a coven came to see me and she jumped up and started running down the hallway of the

00:24church bouncing off the wall. So I took authority over him, cast a demon out of him and he began

00:30to speak biblical Hebrew. And I said to his father, does his son ever study biblical languages?

00:36He's growling like a dog. He growled at me and I said, I only want to ask you two questions,

00:42John. Do you want to be set free? And he said, he growled at me and he said, yes.

00:50Welcome to The Conspiracy Show. My name is Richard Serrett. The ancient rite of

00:54exorcism. It may surprise you to know it's still performed to this day, but do demonic

00:59possessions actually take place? And if so, do exorcisms really work? Tonight, we'll meet

01:05a board certified psychiatrist who insists he witnessed an authentic case of demonic possession.

01:12We'll meet an evangelical pastor who claims he's performed countless successful exorcisms.

01:17And finally, we'll also meet a skeptic who says the existence of demons is mere fantasy

01:22and that exorcisms are a foolish and sometimes dangerous practice that belong back in the

01:28Middle Ages. Our mission tonight is to investigate these claims and follow the truth wherever it

01:34may lead. It is time to redefine reality.

01:38Genetic enigma or a human alien?

01:40Call the cathedral a pain?

01:42That's the ultimate climate.

01:43One was far from the know.

01:44History media technology can alter weather patterns.

01:47Created by the corporate of the strain, not man.

01:49There's something here.

01:50By the Illuminati?

01:52There's no doubt.

01:53One of the things we were told there, even though you can't study everything,

01:56that whatever you read in the Bible is true. But I didn't expect this part to be true.

02:12The Reverend Gordon Williams is here. Welcome to The Conspiracy Show, Reverend.

02:15Thank you very much.

02:16You've performed countless, maybe hundreds of exorcisms.

02:19Yes, I've lost track of them many.

02:21Tell us a little bit about your training.

02:23I studied at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, for the ministry.

02:29Most ministers, priests, pastors don't even want to discuss the problem because they want

02:34to toss it aside as if this is somebody's imagination or a psychological disorder, when in fact, well,

02:40many times it's not. There's an entity there that's described in the Bible called evil spirits

02:48or demons, which are basically the same sort of things. They will invade a person's house and harass

02:53them or will go inside them and possess them.

02:57What do they want?

02:58They want to control you. They want to destroy you. Our Bible tells us that the devil comes

03:05to kill, steal, and destroy.

03:06How common is this? It sounds like your phone is literally ringing off the hook.

03:09We get a lot of calls. Many of them are not about actually people who are possessed.

03:15How do you rule out mental illness?

03:18When a person is possessed, these evil spirits will imitate normal psychological, physical disorders.

03:25And the most frequent one seems to be schizophrenia.

03:29And that's where it gets kind of hard to deal with.

03:33Fortunately, I had good counseling courses, both in university and seminary.

03:37But apart from that, what I discovered, that one of the easiest ways to find out whether somebody

03:43is possessed is to start talking about Jesus Christ using his name.

03:48They cause a person to just go wild to the point where they will try to escape,

03:54drive the person right out of the room.

03:56We're here in rainy Yonkers, New York.

03:59And this seminary is home to Dr. Richard E. Gallagher, a board-certified psychiatrist

04:05who in 2008 documented what he calls an authentic case of demonic possession.

04:13I am a practicing Catholic, and I'm open to the idea that probably the best explanation here

04:21seems to be demonic phenomena.

04:29Tell me about the case of Julia, not her real name.

04:35She called herself a member of a satanic cult.

04:40I believe satanic cults are very rare, but I think she was the genuine article.

04:46And she sought out the help of some priests because she was worried about her involvement

04:55with the cult at that point, but she also thought that she was probably possessed.

05:01The priest asked myself as a board-certified psychiatrist to talk to her.

05:07The traditional criteria, and this has been the traditional criteria of many churches,

05:12especially the Catholic Church for centuries, that one should have a doctor see the case generally,

05:19and that certain signs, in addition to the trance state with the voice which expresses hostile

05:25and irreligious comments, you will often expect to see abnormal strength.

05:32You will expect to see some kind of hidden knowledge and be able to speak in foreign languages.

05:37All those features were clearly present in this case.

05:39Joining us here on the conspiracy show is the priest who performed the exorcism on the woman

06:09we're calling Julia.

06:10Now, for the purposes of this interview, we'll identify him as Father A.

06:16Father A, can you tell me about your first meeting with this woman we're calling Julia?

06:21The priest called me with regards to phenomena that had taken place.

06:27He asked me if we would talk.

06:28I said, sure, no.

06:30And he put her on another phone.

06:33She was very sarcastic.

06:36What led her to believe she might have been demonically possessed?

06:40Well, she told us that she was having some weird experiences,

06:43and that at times she was blacking out.

06:46She was going into some kind of a trance state.

06:48She had reported, without being able to remember it herself,

06:52that when she was in this trance state,

06:56people were telling her a voice would come out of her,

06:58of which she had no recollection.

06:59When you met her, did she exhibit any of those types of behaviors?

07:05Periodically, she would go into a trance.

07:08She would kind of space out, seemingly.

07:13And out of her would come these voices.

07:17Now, these voices were clearly, you know, using her vocal cords,

07:20but they sounded different, you know.

07:23And they would say things like,

07:26leave her alone.

07:28We hate you.

07:30You're worthless.

07:32Mostly speaking to the priest.

07:34You're stupid.

07:35You'll never help her.

07:36You'll never get her.

07:37Did she exhibit hidden knowledge?

07:40I was in the bedroom of my house with my wife,

07:43and we have a couple of cats,

07:45and they were sleeping with us on the bed.

07:48She would tell things that she wasn't aware of

07:51prior to my happy message.

07:53I had not revealed anything about my family life,

07:56my priesthood, to her.

07:58The cats awakened us,

08:00because all of a sudden they seemed to kind of

08:02go a little berserk, fighting each other.

08:04And, you know, these are not cats who fight each other.

08:07They're relatively placid.

08:08She evidenced knowledge about where I was working,

08:13and another case spoke about my mother

08:15that was not knowledge that she was privy to.

08:19The next morning, Julia said to us,

08:21how did you like those cats last night?

08:24Somewhat of an upsetting experience.

08:27He's claiming that someone is actually

08:30possessed by a demon,

08:33and that there's sort of real proof,

08:35this is the real case.

08:37When, in fact, science has never authenticated

08:40a single case of such.

08:43Joe Nichol is here from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

08:51I had a conversation with a board-certified psychiatrist

08:56by the name of Dr. Richard Gallagher,

08:58who practices in Valhalla, New York.

09:01And he wrote a piece in a Catholic publication,

09:05I believe it's called the New Oxford Review.

09:08And the title of the article was

09:10A Case of Demonic Possession.

09:12Now, here, presumably, is a man of science.

09:15But because one person is convinced,

09:17and he may, I don't know whether he's a Roman Catholic

09:21or has, you know, some other background,

09:25but, I mean, there are eccentrics in every field of science.

09:28Many of them looked at askance by their peers.

09:33Anthropologists who believe in Bigfoot

09:35and go out and make the most outrageous and silly comments

09:39to the criticism of their peers.

09:42I just would want more information.

09:47I think the burden shouldn't be put on skeptics

09:50to explain something that's not well reported.

09:54Explain the methods that you used

09:57in order to determine that she was not,

10:00as you say, psychiatrically disturbed.

10:02Well, I'm a very experienced psychiatrist,

10:06so essentially I just did a normal psychiatric exam

10:11and interview.

10:12She was a very logical person.

10:15She was not in any way psychotic.

10:17She was not particularly depressed.

10:18There were several other mental health people

10:20who concurred with my feeling

10:22that this was not a person with psychiatric issues.

10:25We don't know why there were noises in the old house.

10:31Therefore, it was a ghost.

10:33We don't know what the bright light in the sky was last evening.

10:39Therefore, it's a flying saucer from Mars.

10:43Now, you can see right away this idea of saying,

10:46we don't know.

10:48Therefore, we do know.

10:51It's nonsense.

10:52What would you say to a skeptic who might suggest,

10:55well, Dr. Gallagher is a Roman Catholic,

10:58so of course he has a certain bias

11:01which might lead him to conclude

11:03that this was an authentic case of demonic possession.

11:07I come from the Catholic tradition,

11:10which some of whose members believe in this stuff,

11:13some of whom are skeptical.

11:15People should keep in mind that 70% of Americans

11:18believe in the devil,

11:20and that's a large percentage.

11:22So, my beliefs in this area,

11:26I think, are a bit more mainstream

11:27than many people would suppose.

11:30And I know quite a few doctors and psychiatrists,

11:33including the chairman of my department of psychiatry,

11:36who was the former president

11:37of the American Psychiatric Association,

11:40who absolutely believes in the same things I do.

11:44And this boy had called his father that morning

11:48to tell him that this demon was telling him

11:51to start killing people.

11:52And he said, I don't want to hurt anybody,

11:53but it's going to hurt me

11:54if I don't do what it tells me.

11:59Typically, someone who's possessed,

12:02will they levitate?

12:04After I previewed the movie The Exorcist,

12:07I got a phone call from a woman

12:09who said that what she saw on the screen

12:13was what had been happening

12:14to her three-year-old daughter.

12:16And I got there,

12:17and the little girl was sitting still in a crib,

12:21bouncing like a basketball.

12:24You remember?

12:24In other words, she wasn't jumping herself.

12:26She wasn't moving a muscle.

12:29And as she was moving up and down,

12:30she was cursing and swearing.

12:32What about superhuman strength?

12:34Ah, yes.

12:36I had, just about maybe five or six years ago,

12:38I had a young man,

12:40well, I said, father phoned me.

12:41And his 21-year-old son,

12:43who weighed about 150 pounds,

12:45could lift a loaded transport trailer

12:48up in the air and drop it.

12:51I couldn't even lift a tire.

12:54And this boy had called his father that morning

12:57to tell him that this demon was telling him

12:59to start killing people.

13:00And he said, I don't want to hurt anybody,

13:01but it's going to hurt me

13:02if I don't do what it tells me.

13:04His father asked me, can you help us?

13:06And I said, certainly, I can.

13:07And he said, but this is a very strong

13:09and powerful one.

13:09And I said, I know,

13:10but as long as we do it the right way,

13:13the son will be set free.

13:15We had known that Julia returned

13:17to her hometown for a while,

13:19which was in a southern state

13:21of the United States.

13:22We were up in the New York area.

13:24But I was talking to one of the exorcists involved

13:27about what the next step was,

13:30planning to arrange an exorcism.

13:31And so I'm speaking to him

13:33on the telephone line from my house.

13:37Julia is literally, you know,

13:40more than a thousand miles away at the time.

13:42We knew that for a fact.

13:44And as I'm talking to him over the phone,

13:47this voice comes in over the phone line.

13:50And it was the exact same sounding voice

13:53as one would hear during the trances,

13:56which I mentioned.

13:57And the voice expressed the same thing,

13:59you know, leave her alone.

14:01She's ours.

14:02You'll never release her.

14:04You're worthless, stupid priest.

14:06Also during the exorcism,

14:07I was told that she was speaking in Latin

14:09and she was speaking in other foreign languages

14:12that I knew from discussions with her.

14:15Julia had no knowledge of these languages.

14:18These people can be interviewed.

14:19I mean, people don't have to take my word for it.

14:21You know, these people would confirm this story.

14:23Dr. Gallagher, once again, is not a linguist.

14:28He's claiming that, okay, she spoke in these languages.

14:31She says she didn't know them.

14:33This is nearly a miracle.

14:35Well, not really.

14:37And when real linguists have studied

14:38this whole phenomenon,

14:40none of it is inexplicable to science.

14:44And the cases that seem too good to be true,

14:47well, are probably too good to be true

14:49and they don't have any real evidence or real support.

14:52People have actually died during exorcisms,

14:57but it's dangerous to our whole culture.

15:00It represents a lapsing back

15:03into a kind of medieval mindset.

15:08For the non-believer,

15:11they might ask,

15:12well, why doesn't someone capture

15:14one of these possessions on videotape?

15:16Have you ever thought of filming one of these things

15:18to convince people?

15:19It's such a personal thing for the people involved

15:22that they're even embarrassed that it happened.

15:26And so it's like I maintain a Christian,

15:33well, worship services should not be seen on television.

15:36I think that it's too personal a thing

15:37that should not be done there.

15:39And when it does, people look at it

15:41and there's some things they will understand,

15:43other things they won't,

15:44and then they just end up mocking it all.

15:46Or even if you tape something,

15:49they'd say, well, they'd accuse you of making it up.

15:50You know, like a play.

15:53I have met people and talked with them

15:56and investigated cases

15:57in which people claim to be possessed

15:59or claim to have formerly been possessed.

16:02In every case that I'm aware of,

16:04the person is simply role-playing.

16:08And they are highly represented

16:10among people who believe that they're psychics

16:12who have a personal ghost in their house,

16:17who talk to the Holy Virgin Mary

16:19on a regular basis and so forth.

16:21And again, if they're not psychotic,

16:23not out of touch with reality,

16:25and they may seem perfectly sane and normal.

16:27I think there are psychiatrists

16:29who talk about something called pseudopossession,

16:32you know, some suggestible individual

16:34who thinks they're possessed but are not.

16:36There was a concept called multiple personality disorder,

16:41which is now generally called dissociative identity disorder.

16:45Patients kind of elaborate

16:46some kind of disturbed personality.

16:50There are clearly many psychotic individuals

16:53who think they are being attacked by the devil

16:56or see the devil or see God or whatever,

16:59and we know that the explanation for their problems

17:03is invariably, you know, psychiatric,

17:06and they often respond to medication.

17:09But the features shown by this remarkable case of Julia

17:14went so far beyond any natural or medical explanation

17:20that I concluded it must be something more,

17:22and the priest agreed with me

17:24that in their official view,

17:26this was a demonic possession,

17:28an exorcism would be in order.

17:29What happened to Julia?

17:31Were the exorcisms successful?

17:33Julia decided not to continue.

17:36I'm not entirely sure whether she got scared,

17:42but she did drop out,

17:43and of course this is her choice.

17:46About a year later she told us

17:48that she did want to take up the exorcisms again,

17:51and the priest who most closely worked with her,

17:55he asked her,

17:57well, why do you want to resume at this point?

17:59And Julia said, because I'm dying,

18:01because I've been diagnosed as having cancer,

18:04and I really want to be delivered before I die.

18:07So I spoke to Julia on the phone.

18:09I said to her, well, you know,

18:12I really need to speak to your doctor.

18:13I need to confirm this diagnosis.

18:16She wasn't sure that she wanted to get her doctor involved,

18:18but that she would get back to us.

18:21She never got back to us.

18:22We never quite knew what happened to her.

18:25Can you talk to me about the dangers of exorcism?

18:31We could be ignorant, superstitious,

18:33believe dogmas,

18:34be superstitious,

18:36believe in the supernatural,

18:37believe the devil's going to get you,

18:38and that may be good for business,

18:42for a particular religious dogma,

18:44but it's anti-science.

18:46The good news about it is this.

18:47If there are no demons there,

18:50there's no harm done.

18:52People have actually died during exorcisms,

18:55but it's dangerous to our whole culture.

18:58It represents a lapsing back

19:01into a kind of medieval mindset.

19:03Don't necessarily believe me.

19:05I'm just stating what a number of the people

19:09who are involved with myself

19:10could easily state as well.

19:13Decide for yourself.

19:14But when I say decide for yourself,

19:17you know, don't just parrot the beliefs

19:21of your family or your educational system.

19:23You know, really keep an open mind.

19:26Look at the facts.

19:27Decide whether the facts have some credibility,

19:30and then make up your own mind.

19:31That would be my advice.

19:32I don't know about you,

19:35but when a board-certified psychiatrist

19:37goes on record as saying

19:38he witnessed an authentic case

19:40of demonic possession,

19:41I stand up and take notice.

19:43I spoke by phone to Father A.

19:46He corroborated everything

19:47that Dr. Gallagher said,

19:49from Julia's levitation

19:50to her knowledge of Latin

19:52to her frightening paranormal abilities.

19:55And what are we to make

19:56of the Reverend Gordon Williams,

19:58a graduate of the prestigious seminary

20:00at Princeton University?

20:02Is he making this all up?

20:04And Joe Nicol.

20:05He presented an articulate,

20:07well-reasoned argument

20:08against demonic possession.

20:10Reason and scientific inquiry

20:12are invaluable

20:13and absolutely necessary.

20:15But do reason and scientific inquiry

20:18even apply?

20:20Can they even apply

20:21when we're talking about

20:22the spirit world,

20:23the supernatural?

20:24The French poet Baudelaire wrote

20:26that the devil's greatest trick

20:28was to convince the world

20:30he doesn't exist.

20:32I believe we ignore that

20:33at our peril.

20:35And now,

20:36we'd like to know

20:36what you think.

20:37You can contact us here

20:39at The Conspiracy Show

20:40through our website,

20:41www.theconspiracyshow.com.

20:44In the meantime,

20:45don't be afraid.

20:47Move over, Aphrodite.

20:48I'm coming home.

20:50Good night.

Demonic Possession, The Conspiracy Show, Ep.108

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