True or False Possession?: How to Distinguish the Demonic from the Demented

About this book

Unhinged or unholy? Fiend or fraud? Thats what authorities had to decide about the Carmelite nun Marie-Thrse Noblet (1889-1930). She suffered sudden diseases that were as quickly cured chokings night beatings unclean visions of blasphemous scenes violent shakes witnessed by onlookers foul assaults from filthy beasts including one she recalled as full of terrible beauty with eyes full of hate. Then theres Sr. Jeanne of the Angels the 17th-century prioress of her Ursuline convent plagued by diabolical visits with an explicitly erotic element which spread epidemic-like to the Ursuline sisters under her care whose convulsive attacks and obscene contortions scandalized all who witnessed them. Were these sisters demonic? Deranged? Or merely deceitful? Thats the first question exorcists must answer--the question addressed in these pages by the world-famous French neuropsychiatrist Jeanne Lhermitte. Genuine demonic possessions admits Lhermitte evade the explanations and exceed the competence of even the wisest physicians: they must not be handled in the clinic but by the Church. At the same time exorcisms do not help those who are mentally ill. So skilled physicians and trained clergy must press past the visions the gibbering the howlings and grindings of teeth and other frightening symptoms to discern whether theyre dealing with real possession or only pathology mental or physical. Thats the work Dr. Lhermitte undertakes in these these pages. With sober clarity and reserve he reviews the detailed clinical records of scores of cases that startled and alarmed our forefathers as well as the cases of many souls hes examined personally: unfortunate souls judged possessed who manifested symptoms ranging from the picturesque to the loathsome and pitiful. By means of these cases Lhermitte illuminates the criteria the Church holds to be decisive signs of genuine possession . . . and those that assure us that despite filth and fits shrieks and slobbering in other cases the influence of the demon is sought in vain. Good priests and wise Catholic physicians know that for the sake of souls disturbed souls must never be hastily examined or casually judged. True or False Possession? will teach you too not to rush to judgment and show you when its time to call the priest.