Hi! I'm writing a paper (for school, nothing published) about Mormon exorcisms. I have one interview with an ex-missionary this was performed on, and I'd like some other accounts for consistency. Any one willing to share?

What do you need?

Any information relating to someone from the church performing an exorcism on you. Why did they do it, what was it like, etc? What happened after? I was told it involved anything you would expect from an exorcism.. tongues, sweat, laying hands on the exorcised, etc. And it was due to someone leaving their mission early. I just want to hear a bit about other experiences.

If it does happen, there are going to be two ways it happens. The first way is a blessing, and looks like any other blessing. One to three male priesthood holders put their hands on the person's head, annoints them, and blesses them. At this point they will command the spirit to leave and promise blessings that generally have to do with the person's life.

The other way is much more dramatic. A male priesthood holder will raise his arm to a square, command that a demon leave the area or a person, and will give the command in the name of jesus christ.

The second way is popularized by Mormon history, specifically, that Mormon leaders in the past would use this method to cast out demons. In all my years as a Mormon I have never heard of anybody ever actually attempting to exorcise a demon using the second method.

They may be hard to find, I doubt that they were very common. In my forty years of Mormonism, I never heard of one being done. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, it just must not be very common.

I had a member try to give me "El Ojo" (the evil eye to make you sick) when I was on my mission in Ecuador...but no exorcisms

I was always taught that exorcisims were not part of Morg services. I've never heard of one being done, just jokes made at the Catholics for them. I think annointing with oil and a blessing is about all you get for any ailment.

Must have worked! Look at me now! ;o)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2012 08:54PM by wine country girl.

My seminary. Teacher said she was possessed one Sunday morning. She wanted to kill her children and so she called her home teachers. She had locked herself in a closet until they came and gave her a blessing. No exorcist.

I have heard stories of alleged demonic possession & attempted demonic attacks within the cult my entire life, especially from people in my former ward & stake. Then my sister came home from her mission, she said that one of her companions had been possessed. I was like 'WTF, why do you think that happened when it didn't.'

The cult is obssessed with Satan, demons, possession, etc. It's sick, & all it does is cause unnecessary inner fears & nightmares for people. Of course the cult doesn't want to fight real evil - They supported Hitler! They just want a boogeyman to scare people into giving them more money, & that boogeyman is the myth of Satan/Lucifer.

If you are looking for any sort of academic honesty, none of what this person says is common in the slightest. There are weird elements in all religions, but exorcisms aren't common at all.

What might be more interesting would be to take a look at Mormon exorcisms (or casting out of devils) in the context of their religious literature, their history, or even in their culture. Occasionally it is talked about within Mormonism, but except for possibly some very fringe elements, it is rarely practiced.

Another academically interesting topic might be how Mormons view exorcisms compared to the rest of Christianity.

If you are looking for something sensational that a bored professor won't question, then by all means listen to the poster I am replying to. It is wonderful fiction.

Of course it was fiction! I never believed a word of anything anyone said about these alleged incidents, even what my own sister said. I do admit that I seriously think there were a lot of mentally disturbed & mentally ill people in my former ward who were obssessed with Satan & demonic possession. I had one YW advisor (my best friend's mom no less) who once claimed that Satan broke her damn washing machine. :facepalm:

That must have been a crazy experience, dang.

I witnessed that situation once. I was very new to the mission and was called upon to perform an 'exorcism'. It was a very frightening experience.

Satan has to be continually revived and reviled to keep the fear alive so people will pay.

It is most interesting that apostates are considered "under the control" of Satan. Those words when you think about it, it is a complete contradiction of Jesus's plan, isn't it?

It was Jesus that wanted to give mankind free will-- agency, free choice and it was Satan who wanted to compel man to obey.

So Satan is down here raging away and we are lead to believe that he is given a legion of apostates, growing in number everyday, of people who chose not to obey the church, rather to go it alone spiritually, according to the dictates of their own consciences. Jesus' plan in action...

We are the embodiment of Jesus' plan, aren't we?

So...don't we have insufficient faith to even be possessed? Doesn't it take faith in Satan to be possessed by him or his demons?

None of this hangs together, as you can see.

Anagrammy

Richard Dutcher interview with MORmON stories on Youtube.
there is several hours for the entire thing and I cant recall exactly where it is,
but Richard tells an EXCELLENT story on (supposed) demonic possession in this interview.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faLrk1Kyr6k

Who did her best to exorcise demon lust from my being...

I kept getting repossessed, however...

Okay, sorry folks, but my "BYU Spring Break" antenna just started tingling, and I'm of the opinion that a good one-liner is the best way to smoke these miscreants out...

play any significant role in the Mormon church or its culture. In my 30 year association with the Morg, it was NEVER mentioned except in the context of "things Catholics do".

If you are going to do interviews and spend a bunch of time researching and writing on a topic related to Mormonism, I think that you should step back and look into other topics where the occult or supernatural enter into the picture (I only say that since it sounds like you want to write about supernatural experiences reported by former Mormons).

If I were you, and your topic is not fixed in stone for the assignment yet, I'd post a thread and explain the requirements of your assignment and ask for topics that you could write about that would involve similar interviews to what you are looking for.

Just a suggestion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2012 01:40AM by drjekyll.

The thing is that TBMs won't call it 'exorcism'. They'll refer to it in other terms such as 'casting out'.

in my experience. I didn't hear of any leaders running here or there to go cast out some spirits. Perhaps some old pioneer era stories were mentioned, but I only vaguely remember even that. Casting out stories were mostly mentioned when a New Testament reading contained one, but they were never really dwelt on. The whole idea of any kind of possessions was always associated with the unprotected Catholics and Fundamentalist Christians, not Mormons.

A good friend of mine and his gf were supposedly possessed one evening. I wasn't there, but I got the story from someone who was. The bishopric and the stake presidency were both called to the home to cast out the evil spirits. I can't give details, it's been too many years ago.

As Tristan said, it's not usually referred to as 'exorcism' in the church. It also happened to a companion of mine during our missions in France. There was a member girl there who had a crush on my companion, and one time at church she just went all crazy. She fell on the floor, convulsing and talking all weird, and we thought she was possessed.

I know of missionaries in the MTC while I was there who swore they saw an evil spirit in their room one night after they were swapping stories about such things. You could see the fear in their faces for days afterwards. They wouldn't even talk about it for fear it would happen again.

I was personally haunted for years by what I believed were evil spirits. It was terrifying at times. It all stopped when I left the church the first time. It started up again after I went back to church, and stopped after I quit the second time.

I believe the fear, guilt and other control mechanisms, along with stories that teach and reinforce a belief in demons can cause such things to manifest in the minds of certain people. I am such a one. I no longer believe that any of it was real, but it seemed to be at the time.

My sister who is now Jack Mormon got referred to a counselor(?) through LDS social services after her TBM husband left her for a woman he was having an affair with when he stared working out of state. She was telling me he was telling her she had some odd weirdness he was drawing out by acting really weird himself with smoke and chants. She only went a couple of times because he was so weird. I agree it sounded weird and told her I wouldn't keep going.

Its funny cuz there is that song : The Spirit of God.
It has the line that says "the visions and blessings of old are returning and angels are coming to visit the earth."

Seriously I always felt weird about people who acted like they saw spirits and stuff. I even feared the spirits who were always watching me. It made me feel so guilty for ever pushing the edge of the taboo envelope. What awesome mind control that is when you believe they see you when your sleeping and know when your awake and know when you've been bad or good so your too good for the sake of being too scared to be anything else. Really purging Mormonism is like purging a demon in someways.... well more like unloading useless emotional baggage you've been hoarding because you are afraid to let go.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2012 02:38AM by Taddlywog.

My tbm family has had experiences with evil spirits that have convinced them of two things: one, the church is true and two they are the valiant ones because Satan is working overtime to possess them.

Too bad my BF wouldn't be interested in giving an interview. He has a hilarious story about his brother trying to exorcise the demons out of him when his bro returned from his mission.

"...I have a great funny story, but I'm not going to tell you..." >:p

Your typical RM raising his hands to the square and "casting the demons out" of a rebellious, hard-partying Provo teenager. :D Maybe I'll work on him to give permission for the whole story.

I went to Chile on my mish. We had this program where we would have the members invite nonmember friends to their houses so we could give them the discussions. One night we were doing this with a member girl and her friend. It was in the family's house but only the member girl and her friend were in the discussion the rest of the family was in the other room. I had not been in the country for two weeks so I barely spoke any Spanish at all and my companion was doing most of the talking.

So we are sitting there giving the discussion and all of a sudden the member girl starts screaming and thrashing around with this wild look in her eyes. Her dad came running in and knelt down in front of her asking her what was wrong when she put her hands on his chest and pushed him. He literally flew across the room about ten feet and hit the wall knocking him almost unconscious. My companion looked at me and asked what do we do. I said I don't know you are the senior what do you think. He said he had no clue what to do so I said she must be posessed so lets give her a blessing. He told me I had to do it because he didn't know what to say. I said I don't know how to speak Spanish enough to do it I would have to do it in English. He said thats ok he would explain to the family what I was going to do. It was like a Laurel and Hardy skit and when I look back at it now I just laugh.

Anyway, my companion explained to the family what we were going to do and I took out my trusty "consecrated oil" and put some on her head. We put our hands on her head and she got quiet and still as a rock. I blessed her and she was quiet during the whole blessing but when we lifted our hands she started screaming and thrashing around again. We tried it again with my companion saying the blessing this time in Spanish, same results. So I went and called the zone leaders and they jumped on a train, they were about 1 hour away, and headed down. They brought another set of ZLs and the district leader and his comp as well. Now there were 8 missionaries and her father and we all laid hands on her and the head ZL said the blessing. Same results. So we went to a house that had a phone and called the mish pres. He scolded us for doing so many blessings and told us to go back to the house and tell them that we had done all we could and it was now up to the girl to exercise her faith.

Fast foward about 3 months. I could now speak Spanish quite well and I was talking to this girl one day at her birthday party. I asked her what had gone on back on that fateful day. She said that she had a nervous breakdown. She had had sex with her boyfriend and the guilt was tearing her up inside. Listening to the discussion had been the straw that broke the camel's back and she just had a nervous breakdown.

So in the end, no posession, no demons exercised, just a poor girl having a nervous breakdown because of guilt. Sorry for the long story to not provide what you wanted, but at the time we were positive she was posessed, especially after watching her throw her father who was two or three times her size across the room almost effortlessly. Anyway that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Here's how you do a mormom excorsism:

Priesthood holder puts his arm to the square and says, by the power of the melchizedek priesthood, which I hold, get thee hence satan!

In the name of Jesus Christ Amen

You think this is a joke...... It's not.