Reddit reviews An Exorcist Tells His Story

This is just a peasant from a small town in Colombia, who "inherited his powers from his father", and it's not in any way affiliated with any particular church.

On that matter, and if there's someone really interested in exorcisms or demonology from the Catholic perspective, there's a book by Gabriele Amorth, the Catholic Diocese of Rome's exorcist, who actually has dedicated much of his life to this duties.

According to the Wikipedia article, he has said many times that he would never practice an exorcism to a person that claims himself to be possessed, and has not seek psychiatric or medical advices before.

You'll shit bricks, even if you don't believe in those things.

EDIT: Spelling.

Side note. There is a good book called An Exorcist Tells His Story. Its written by a priest that realized he was one of the few trained exorcists in Europe. So he wrote this book as a primer for priests of his experiences.

To save you the trouble, exorcisms come down to humility and communion with Christ. He says the best way to keep yourself safe from the demonic is prayer, communion with Christ, and repentance.

So pretty basic stuff. Nothing too Hollywood about it.

Edit: I feel like I should mention I read this book as a non-denominational charismatic christian and still found the information inside very accessible to a non-catholic.

Awww yeah!

• The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn. Excellent read to learn about the Biblical foundations of the Mass and an explanation of the Church's understanding of the oft-misunderstood Book of Revelation of John.
  
  
• The Soul of the Apostoalte. Words can't really express the spiritual treasury in this book. It basically describes how rooted we must be in prayer for any apostolate to survive.
  
  
• Introduction to the Devout Life. Another spiritual classic by St. Francis de Sales. A classic piece of literature that EVERY faithful Catholic should have in their home! St. Francis teaches us how to pray and meditate in very simple, accessible ways.
  
  
• The Confessions of St. Augustine. This isn't a novel about a saint airing his dirty laundry, this is entire piece of literature is a prayer and an introspective, philosophical examination of why we tend to choose evil over good. It may be a challenge for new readers, but it's an incredible work.
  
  
• An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories by Fr. Gabriel Amorth, chief exorcist of Rome. Two excellent works on demonic activity, spiritual warfare, and the Rite of Exorcism. More Stories has a better format than the first work, but both are worth reading.
  
  
• The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist. Though told from the perspective of a journalist, and including a ridiculous armchair psychological examination that attempts to disprove demonic activity (chapter 13 I believe), it's a good book worth reading on spiritual warfare. NOT at all similar to the movie, and a good read.
  
  There are more books, but I'll have to go into my memory-vault to remember what I would recommend.

You might look into other books that won't tempt a person into getting over his head.

Well, An Exorcist Tells His Story, Hostage to the Devil, The Demonologist, parts of the Bible (KJV and NIV for comparison). It's difficult to find much good information on the Internet that isn't awash in silly spiritism or confrontational Christianity.

In the Catholic Church and most non-evangelical denominations, the person who is believed to be possessed is examined thoroughly by medical and psychiatric professionals. Sometimes these professionals are religious, sometimes they're not. When this person is cleared by the pros but the problems persist, the local bishop will authorize an exorcism.

People who are possessed (or oppressed or obsessed) range the full spectrum from complete atheism to devout faith. Their behavior can change violently if a holy item is brought near to them, even if they can't see it and have no reason to expect its presence.

The only way to explain all of this "rationally" is to decide that all of these books are complete fiction, that all the authors are liars, and that none of it ever happened, or didn't happen the way that they depicted it. You have to toss out everything.

In fact, you have to accept a conspiracy of lies, because these stories are everywhere and crop up constantly. You have to assume that all of the people who have come forward on these TV specials are crazy, horribly mistaken, or desperate for notoriety. All of them. That is not a statistically likely outcome at this point, given the sheer amount of data.

And neither is it an obscure process of nature which is just poorly misunderstood. Obscure processes of nature don't lift a 400 pound refrigerator and fling it across the kitchen.

I know I'm probably going to get counter-arguments on this. I really urge those people to read one of these books before they do so. Because what you understand of this phenomenon through popular culture is about 90% wrong.

I read Rome Sweet Home by Scott & Kimberly Hahn and I thought it was a very good tale of conversion. There's a bit of light apologetics throughout and it was compelling enough for me to finish it in a day. (I hardly read.)

Next up on my list are The Lamb's Supper by Hahn, The Love Chapter: The Meaning of 1 Corinthians 13 by St. John Chrysostom, and An Exorcist Tells His Story by Fr. Gabrielle Amorth, exorcist of the Vatican.

If you know any young people, the YOUCAT is an invaluable resource if they don't want to sit through the entire Catechism. Of course you want to eventually point them to it but I find, at 22, it's more suited to me poor attention span.

Canticle for Leibowitz is my favourite Catholic fiction but that doesn't mean much because I haven't read anything else. If you're looking for a good Catholic writer, I hear Flannery O'Connor is one. Of course Tolkien is a giant as is Chesterton (literally).

shit, tough crowd you got. Mine did not react, or hasn't reacted so far. I came out exactly a year ago today, after 2 years of soul searching (I did not find it). Anyways, I wrote a lengthily email to my parents, explaining unrelated shit about my life and concluded with: "btw I'm an Atheist. Don't push religion on me or you'll have an earful."

I saw them two months later. No resistance what so ever. Later in the summer, I debated twice, then decided to shut up because I was missing some rebuttals material. In the middle of the summer, my mother attempted to push me to church for 9 days strait. I said I'd go for a few but not all. When I refused for the first time, she insisted, and as promised she got an earful. Her attempts have reduced dramatically since.

I have mocked religion on both twitter and facebook on occasion. I got into a friendly debate with my sister, and she stopped responding. She said she wouldn't debate me anymore because I refuse to see the light. I think it's because I got better material than she does.

My uncle did attempt to debate me after a twit. I told him he could threaten me with hell all he wants, I consider the devil equal to the boogieman. I got this ebook later. I've read some of it, it's basically the God of the gaps argument from the beginning. He's trying to convince me of the existence of the devil with a logical fallacy.

That ends my family's response to my coming out.

The Church is actually very thorough before calling something a possession. Someone who thinks they are must go see a psychiatrist and receive counseling. If the psychiatrist has determined the person is no suffering form any mental illness, the Church then looks at it from a spiritual angle. They only call it a possession once all those investigations are complete.

You should pick up this book and give it a read.

Important

I will start with the important point first: BE VERY CAREFUL; preferably even avoid this whole area to begin with. You are driving into areas that at the least are a big fruitless distraction and at worst can be pretty dangerous.

Are you a practicing Catholic Christian? Honestly I am not sure what your beliefs are from what you mentioned previously. If you are trying to live a strong life with God, my advice is don't waste your time with all of this. I give you this advice, since it was given to me when I started my walk with the Lord. When I started, I was very distracted with the spiritual world and demonology. My mentor at the time made it clear to me that this is a distraction. Honestly after that point I realized that that topic should not be taking any serious part of my time. I realized that there is so much to LEARN AND EXPERIENCE about God and the trinity. It is really much more fruitful, practical, applicable and helpful to my life than anything else. It is only after years of being with God have I once in a while read some books by exorcists.

Responses

> I personally think they should ask for Lay Ministers of some sort to practice guided Chaotiks

I think this is at the least a waste of time (no offense) and at worst a risk to these ministers. The concept that Chaos Magic talks about according to the Wikipedia page is problematic in my view according to Catholic teachings. Even superficially, it focuses the person's faith on their abilities instead of on God and our need for Him. Christianity focuses on us letting go of our old man and filling ourselves with God; letting God create and mold us into a new man. God is the center. All magic sets the person at the center. That is a fundamental issue right off the bat for me. This is not even talking about the fact of using magic or spiritual interactions.

> The whole belief is a tool was mad convincing to me and I am guilty of considering reading the book that explains it all

If it will get it out of your system, read the book for information and don't spend too much time on it. But be very clear, this is not just a tool. A system/faith the relies on belief to control the environment around you is at best a fantasy and at worst dealing with spiritual entities that are best avoided. They can be very dangerous and invite demonic attacks on the user.

> I don't consider the spiritual repercussions of going to their temple because I don't want to be alone. I asked my best friend if he want to go and he simply said no.

Follow your friend's advice. Do not consort with people who deal with spirits or magic. It seems like a distraction that is stunting your spiritual growth with God.

> Also there is a universal law of 3's in Wiccan Practice and I wonder how that relates to the Holy Trinity and the whole Passion of the Christ. And if that could be manipulated in some way.

There is no relation. God is Holy and a Trinity. Numbers are very common across many religions/philosophies. Three is a very common number that shows up in many places. Do not try to find a relationship where none exists.

> Ah yes my dreams are way to vague for my liking. I wish I didn't drop out of college or at least choose a non-secular college.

Honestly this is still confusing. Are you having lucid dreams? Are you having nightmares? Also not sure how college relates here.

> I am afraid I am gonna have to ask for a source

For a good understanding on the Catholic Church's teachings on the matter, I would recommend books by Father Gabriel Amorth. Fr. Amorth is the exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. he has two books:

• An Exorcist Tells His Story
  
• An Exorcist: More Stories
  
  The books give a clear explanation on what types of demonic influence there are including possession, oppression and obsession and curse (that was surprising to me).
  
  > If curses are real, than could not the Holy Father help the Vatican profit off of who we consider Pagans or those that consider themselves Atheists. If it is in sanctified space with proper protections in order then should we not let our Human Brothers practice the Darker Arts (for science and greater wisdom) under the watchful eye of the Lord?
  
  There are way too many wrong things in these statements. First off, the Church only deals with removing evil influence from people's lives to help save people's souls and NEVER FOR A PROFIT. Also dealing with this area is not for testing or scientific purposes. THERE IS NO GOOD MAGIC.
  
  > Just a theory in my Pseudo_Dreamworld. But I hold the belief that all elements have multidimensional properties that have yet to be discovered. Just like there are more than one measurable dimension. I have a Professor friend at UTA that is working on finding the 5th dimension and that is what gave me the whole idea.
  
  There are theories in physics that speak of multiple dimensions. These are pretty well accepted by the physics community. This does not mean that spirits are involved or witches or Wicca. This is purely science. Do not try and mix them in ways that really have no foundation here.

They're being serious. Recommend: http://www.amazon.com/An-Exorcist-Tells-His-Story/dp/0898707102.

You need to know with certainty what's happening and how to deal with it. The logical next steps would be to discard any medical condition that could be producing these strange occurrences.

Also, try to get these books and read them:

http://www.amazon.com/An-Exorcist-Tells-His-Story/dp/0898707102

http://www.amazon.com/An-Exorcist-Stories-Gabriele-Amorth/dp/0898709172/

PM me if you want to talk about this.

Good luck...

http://www.amazon.com/Exorcist-Tells-His-Story/dp/0898707102

An Exorcist Tells His Story

Fr. Gabriel Amorth's book: An Exorcist Tells His Story

Or, Fr. Ripperger's (also an exorcist) videos

Ages ago I read this book by a (the?) Vatican exorcist.

An Exorcist Tells His Story https://www.amazon.com/dp/0898707102/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_XSSgDbB849SGA

The common belief in ghosts—say an ill-fated woman who still appears at the site of her death—isn’t supported by Catholic teaching.

Angels (and demons) are spiritual beings, and they both can influence events on Earth. Saints are people in Heaven who can pray for our needs. The presence of angels and the intercessory prayer of the saints are both used in exorcisms, but Fr. Gabrielle Amorth, in his books on exorcism (check out the first one here), talks about how the image of the Crucifix, because it profoundly represents God’s love for us, is the single most effective tool for exorcism.

I’d suggest reading that book—it’s the book that convinced me of the importance of Mass, prayer, and resisting temptation. It also made me see the sacrifice of the Cross in a new, beautiful way.

Well yeah, of course I realize it's just my word. Also cameras are not permitted from what I know because you don't really want to advertise what takes place there. However, the best I can do for evidence for ya is the word of another person who happened to be the lead exorcist in Rome (he has since passed away) Fr Gabriel Amorth has written several books on the subject. Here's one if you're interested: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0898707102/ref=mp_s_a_1_1/131-9489211-3380003?ie=UTF8&qid=1522465087&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=an+exorcist+tells+his+story&dpPl=1&dpID=51G82%2Bnd3mL&ref=plSrch