“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is He who commands you! It is He who flung you from the gates of Heaven to the depths of Hell! Be gone from this creature of God! Be gone! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!” Father Merrin, from the movie the Exorcist declares during his battle with the demon who has possessed the body of a young girl.1 Horror movies are notorious for dramatizing events of the everyday into the viewer’s worst nightmare. Although the dramatization is great for selling seats in the theater, it leaves the viewer wondering how much of this could possibly be accurate. Are exorcisms in the Catholic faith as dramatic as they seem to be in movies? What is the process to determine if someone is actually possessed? If someone is possessed, how can they get an exorcism through the Catholic church? When it comes to exorcisms in the Catholic church, there is a lot more than what meets the eye. …show more content…
b: to get rid of (something troublesome, menacing, or oppressive).”2 With this being said, it is easy to understand the idea that an exorcism is the process in which anything deemed evil is exorcised. This sounds simple enough; but how do you declare that there is something truly evil in someone, where they require an exorcism? “[Father Gary] Thomas emphasizes the rarity of possession, noting that he has exorcized only five people in five years. More than 80 percent of the people who come to him need therapy, not an exorcist, he says.”3 With this being the case, there are “signs” the church looks for to prove demonic possession. According to Father Thomas, classic signs of demonic possession include: being unable to look at a crucifix, unable to stay in a church, “knowledge of hidden things” (possibly seeing the future), speaking in languages that the person has no understanding of, increased strength, and “extreme facial