Terrance Cottrell Jr. was winding down his summer in Milwaukee, getting ready for a new school year at a new school. The boy did not live the untroubled life of other 8-year-old children, suffering as he did from autism, and his mother would be sending him to a school better able to deal with his condition. Then one Sunday morning in August he was made the focus of a religious ceremony of a kind that still mystifies most of the public. The Cottrell family minister, Ray Hemphill, performed an exorcism to cast out demons and thereby heal Terrance of his condition. The faithful gathered around the boy in their storefront Apostolic church and held him on the ground even as he struggled against them. Because of his diminished capacity to communicate, a result of autism, Terrance was unable to tell the pastor that he could not breathe. After two hours of prayers for exorcism, someone finally noticed the boy wasn't breathing. Hemphill was arrested, and once more the public interest was alive with debate and fascination about exorcism. Who, after all, is performing these ceremonies? Have we not learned from modern psychiatry that mental illness is not caused by demonic possession? Or was C.S. Lewis correct in saying, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was in convincing the world he didn't exist"?Most of what the popular culture knows about exorcism and demonic possession is gleaned from The Exorcist, a film classic that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

Since its release this imaginative horror picture, based on the novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, has whetted an appetite and widespread interest in exorcism that in turn has produced other films, books and broadcasts that have tended to encourage the practice. Biblical literalists point to exorcisms performed by Jesus, citing Luke 8:26-40 and Mark 1:23-36. These accounts, as well as Ephesians 6:10-18, which are seen as a charter for spiritual warfare, gave rise to the practice of exorcism among early Christians.

View: Full Article | Source: Insight Magazine

Doesn't surprise me. Someone was bound to be hurt/killed because of "exorcim" eventually. Having witnessed some Pentacostal exorcisms, I fully believe that demon possesion is not real. I say this because I've watched the ppl at my church. They're all ones looking for something to believe in. They have many problems in their lives. When the pastor tells them they are demon possesed when he lays hands on them to pray, their mind fully believes it and therefore they start acting like it. They start squirming on the ground or growling like black and death metal singers. And pentacostals firmly believe that if you can growl or talk in a growling voice that you must be possesed. Heck my fiancee's dad thought that the guy who did Gollum's voice in LOTR: TTT was possesed at first lol. My fiancee and I had to explain that it was just the voicec for the character. Anyways pentacostal and other evangelical exorcisms aren't really something that is fun to watch because they do hold the person down till they believe they have casted out the demon. The funny thing is it isn't ritualized like catholic exorcisms, but instead it consists of pastors yelling "OUT DEMON! JESUS CHRIST SAYS GET OUT! IN THE NAME OF JESUS GET OUT!" etc etc etc...just and endless number of things. My favorite is "GET OUT! GET OUT! COME OUT!! GET OUT! COME OUT!" They even believe that ppl get possesed by spirits of sexuality, tabbacoo, alcohol, and any other number of things. I still swear my preacher is scared of me because for one they haven't gotten me to fall under the power of God and since they haven't gotten me to stop listening to secular (I hate that word, makes things sound evil that aren't) music. Also doesn't help that I wear all black and a long sleeved fishnet undershirt sometimes along with a varity of braclets. My mom thinks that they probably think I'm a satanic threat. hehehehhehehehe HAHAHAHA!!! Anyways thats my rant. Time to go my music.