Exorcism is bound to conjure up scary images of a teenage girl’s head spinning around on her shoulders at 360 degrees, her convulsing body, contorted face, a guttural demonic voice mouthing curses and obscenities at a battered priest —The Exorcist, who struggles against the devil to redeem the girl’s body and soul.

Exorcism or the ritualistic act of driving out evil spirits is a special type of faith healing. The word exorcism is derived from the Latin word exorcismus. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines exorcism as "the act of driving out, or warding off, demons, or evil spirits, from persons, places, or things, which are believed to be possessed or infested by them, or are liable to become victims or instruments of their malice." Signs of possession are believed to include speaking or understanding languages unknown to the victim, intense hatred of ‘holy things’, display of incredible physical strengh, levitation and inexplicable wounds or lesions on the body. Irrespective of where in the world this ritual is done, the scene involves the exorcist, the victim and a supporting community.

Religion and Exorcism

Demonic possession and exorcism, along with a strong belief that dead spirits are capable of harming the living, have a long history in various cultures around the world. In ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and Hindu cultures, shamans or priest healers entered into a trance to identify the “mischief-making spirit" and to elicit from it the way to end the victim’s torment. Jewish folklore and Kabbalah teachings mention a malevolent spirit dybbuk—the soul of a dead person that re-enters a living person to carry out its unfinished agenda and is usually exorcised to leave the body through the toe. Muslims believe in a Jinn—an evil spirit that invades a human at the behest of Satan to cause illness, pain, and evil thoughts. Particular passages from the Quran are read out to expel the Jinn.

The Vedic religions speak of an evil spirit that can harm human beings and even obstruct God’s will. In a traditional Hindu exorcism the exorcist chants mantras, holds a bunch of neem leaves, blows sacred ash on the possessed person and the spirit is either appeased with choicest food items or whip lashed out of the victim.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

The movie Exorcism of Emily Rose examines a 1976 real life exorcism conducted in Germany. It generated great interest because the priest who performed the ritual and the parents of the victim were convicted by the Court for decreeing the teenager possessed, and denying medical treatment for what may have been a mental illness.

The Roman Catholic Church currently uses the New rite for exorcism— the official document detailing the prayers and steps of an exorcism, only as a last resort, with a psychiatrist or a medical practitioner in attendance during the ritual. While introducing the New Rites for Exorcisms to the press in 1999, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez said, “Exorcism is one thing, and psychoanalysis is another. If the exorcist has any doubt about the mental health of the possessed, he should consult an expert ... It often happens that simple people confuse somatic problems with diabolical influence, but not everything can be attributed to the devil.”