CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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The difference between Supernatural Science and other shows I’ve seen on the shroud is that it didn’t go in with the assumption the shroud was real. Just about ever show tries to glamorize it by emphasizing every detail that they think will make it look like a miracle no matter how silly and often make the unproven assumption that it could not be done with techniques of the times.
Supernatural Science however was the only show I’ve seen that went at the thing with a logical scientific approach and asked some good questions that I have wondered myself but were ignored by other documentaries. For example, why is the image flat? If you cover a model in paint and wrap it in a shroud the way people claim the shroud was “photographically” taken and then open it, you will see the paint image is stretched like you’d expect rather than being like a photograph taken at a distance. Furthermore it looked to them like the shroud was simply painted, and then folded in half to create a symmetrical image. I thought the the show was very good, although insulting to the intelligence of true shroud believers.
Friends,
Sorry for the delay. In regards to your question about possession, first and foremost, I believe those acts of possession and exorcism in the New Testament are both reliable and authentic cases. I say this not just as a Christian, but as a history teacher (and student, for we always keep learning… lol). Also, as I state in my essay which appears in AMERICAN EXORCIST, “In his book In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism Among Early Christians (2007), Twelftree writes that exorcism was well known in the ancient world, including first century Palestine, as evident in textual sources such as the Qumran scrolls (particularly 11Q5 (11QPsa) 27.9-10), the apocryphal book of Tobit, the writing of Jewish historian Josephus (The Antiquities of the Jews 8:45-49 and The Wars of the Jews 7.180-185), the New Testament (particularly the Gospel according to Luke 9:49 and Acts 19:13-19), the magical papyri (Papyri graecae magicae), and in the writing of Justin Martyr (in Dialogue with Trypho) (36)”.
Outside the Bible, in his fascinating book, An Exorcist Tells His Story (1999), Father Gabrielle Amorth speaks of some cases that appear legitimate. At the moment, I am investigating this: http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?print=1&did=0308-gallagher, but not sure if it’s the real deal yet. There are many more, but all my books are at home and I am abroad at the moment. I will endeavor to get back to you when time permits!
🙂Cheers & God Bless
Benjamin Szumskyj
Editor, AMERICAN EXORCISTI was ‘raised’ a Catholic, in that I was baptised by parents who aren’t exactly practising, but being young when they had me, having me baptised scored some points with their Irish and Italian families. So Catholicism is strong in my family, especially from my Grandparents. I went to Catholic schools, but I’ve been an atheist since I was very young, so no I don’t believe in possession. I enjoy The Exoricist film and novel as wonderful examples of storytelling and characterisation.
A big part of me would like to have some kind of religious faith, and I deeply admire those who do, so long as they are no infringing other’s lives. But I am too much of a skeptic.
Jen (or anyone for that matter),
As skeptics, agnostics, etc., as a friend and fellow Blatty fan, I would be more than happy to direct you to some fine books on the Christian faith (i.e. evidence, rationale, etc) or possibly answer any questions you might have about it all… 🙂
Cheers & God Bless
Editor, AMERICAN EXORCISTI wonder how many fans of the movie actually believe in posession. Strangely enough, I never really gave much thought to it. I don’t know if I believe or not.
Maybe I don’t want to know if it’s real. Becuase if it is, then there’s a real Hell waiting for some when they pass on…how is it determined who goes there and for which sins?
Scarry but perplexing stuff to ponder.
I have been reading the posts considering if posession is real. I thought that this movie was just “a scary movie” until I met my husband. I did not really believe in exorcism. He attended a Jesuit boarding school in the 50’s. One of his teachers was Father Bowdern! And the Jesuit scholastic who helped Father Bowdern was Walt Halloran. Walt Halloran was a family friend. I met him years ago. YOu can look up the names on one of the links listed above: Haunted Boy, the Story behind the Exorcist.
Walt Halloran was a very religious man, extremely intelligent, and would never have been party to any type of farce. I finally came to believe that yes, there was some sort of posession or “something” that was cast out or neutralized by the exorcism carried out by these Jesuits. I am a believer now and although there were great liberties taken in the book and the movie to make them more exciting to audeiences, they are scarier now than when I first came into contact with them, because of what I have learned over the years.To me, it’s another one of those grey areas like UFOs or the Loch Ness monster; we all want to believe in it, but there has been no solid, reliable (completely convincing) evidence for it. I remain in the “I want to believe area” – held back by rationality.
LOL
well i guess since Im posting anonymously and probably wont be around here long enough to care what any of you think about my story ill share it with you in a condensed version. Im sure it will sound like someone spiralling into the depths of madness and im sure thats what it was but here it is anyway for your consideration. it would take an entire novel to detail it into something coherant so im not sure this is worth anyone’s time except those curious enough to entertain what a random stranger says over the internet….
a long time ago i became very spiritual after spending about eight months alone with no car, telephone, friends, etc. I spent almost all my time outside meditating and reading. I lived in the country and there was a pack of wild dogs i befriended over a few months…
anyway i became very in tune with nature and spirituality. i could talk to animals, i feel the heartbeat of the world. i would often blindfold myself and meditate until i could see the world around me. all that kind of stuff.
thats when the trouble started.
I became reintigrated into “civilisation” and it profoundly disturbed me how people act and treat nature. I saw things that were probably normal for others such as animal cruelty and child abuse and my ability to deal with it was pretty much gone. i remember one guy had a shock caller on his dog and kept shocking it for entertainment with a little remote control… and another time a bunch of chickens fell off of a truck… i remember children coughing while adults smoked right in front of them…
so i became homeless and wandered around for a while. i was super sensitive to the world and the stress of it became too much. i began drinking alchohol to numb the constant feeling of things being wrong.
i was hanging out at this abandoned place with this girl and she punched a window and her hand was bleeding everywhere so i drank her blood. just to see what would happen.i had studied alot of things about magic enough to know it was a terrible idea but i was so fed up with the world around me curiousity took precedence.
Im fairly sure thats where the real insanity started… hahaha at that time i always got terrible hangovers from drinking and despite having drank much more than what was usual i woke up feeling fantastic. much better than usual. i developed a psychic bond with the girl whos blood i drank and although we rarely talked when i was inclined to pick up the phone to call her it would ring in my hand and she would be on the other line. this happened so often i eventually stopped being surprised by it. im not too surprised by much anymore. things that would make a normal person have a nervous breakdown are laughable to me.
well, i dont really know how to tell this story without feeling more embaressed than i already do even behind an online mask.
Ill skip forward a bit and get to the good bit of it…
I was convinced a dragon had possessed me. it happened through a series of dreams. the possession itself seemed to come from a little cat-lizard thing with a long neck and coarse hairs almost porcupine like on its head and neck. it had fangs and was carried in a box by things i see in my dreams i call “erasers”… the gatekeepers that keep you from remembering important knowledge found while in the astral plane. (yes i know i was completely batshit. enjoy this as fiction please.) anyway one this cat-lizard thing was brought by them in a box by the uniformed men in black type people who change shape. after this thing bit me i went through a transformation and my dreams i became a dragon. i pulled out each of my teeth in a bathroom sink and when i looked my face was a dragon’s gaping razor mouth. (i did a life size painting of this actually. it even glows in the dark heheh)
but the interesting part was the limitless strength and energy… I was smarter, faster, and better in every way. everything that had handicapped me from being a spiritual person was reversed and i thrived on my surroundings. i could walk for days without food or sleep and feel completely fine. i had no fear of anything and people much stronger than me were afraid of my aggressive nature.
in the time that followed i became very wealthy and held influence over alot of people. not in a positive way i might add. we became vandals and drug dealers and I became the leader often having girls let me drink their blood for cocaine or whatever else they wanted.
haha… im seriously not making this up.
of course, whatever power it really was left me one day and i have never felt either of those feelings again. its like the good and evil parts of my persona both burnt themselves out and now im in some duldrum of apathy towards everything. and like this ive stayed for the passed ten years.
the way it left was i felt sad about something. if carnality and violence are the way of the demon then passion and love are certainly the salt to rid yourself of that particular slug. of course this didnt happen through anything good but a heartbreaking occurence. I knew when it left and I dreamt of it no more. It was like the passing of a good friend. Not so much a relief as a feeling of being left with no protection.
i drink alot and tend to deny the whole thing ever happened unless im making money off of it. which i do from my hundreds of grotesque horror paintings.
theres of course much more to the story than that but maybe i should save it for the novelisation. heheh
I think the whole world is haunted and theres an ocean of things around us all the time.
Even if it’s not ghosts or spirits it most certainly is cell phone signals and modem lines and televisions. all these things broadcast a signal our mind can probably interpret as language.one way or another i think its possible.
as for me, im completely fucking nuts. dont think for a second anything to the contrary. even if there were any truth to it, it can pretty much only lead into a downward spiral of madness where the foundations of reality are lost in a vertigo funhouse.
hahaha that was fun to write. thank you mister coffee.
I believe in possession. I know it’s put down to severe mental illness and everything, but I know someone with schizophrenia and even he can’t make objects move just by looking at them or make a person fall over and injure themselves, by looking in their direction either. It’s easy to mistake it, but I personally see them as 2 separate things and I stand to believe in possession.
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