Do Demons Exist?

The belief of demons or evils supernatural entities and their capability to supposedly take over a soul or inhabit a living vessel is a largely Judeo-Christian concept, commonly known as ‘possession’. It is a major religious claim from one of the most domineering religions in the world, the Vatican having strong and influential beliefs about demonic possession and exorcisms. The Catholic Church laid out guidelines to perform these cleansing rituals known as “De exorcismis et supplicationbus quibusdam”

Surely in 1614 catholic beliefs were more popular than neuroscience.

In 2012, “Brain on fire” was published- an autobiography of Sussanah Cahalan and the story of her hellish experience suffering a neurological autoimmune disease called NMDAR encephalitis , that has been traditionally mistaken for demonic possession. The symptoms develop fast and range from flu-like symptoms to seizures and memory loss, disturbing behaviour, cursing and abnormal movements. To add fuel to the fire, it was mostly seen in women as it was caused by an ovarian tumour, aged between 18-45 years old.

There were many incidents described in the pages of the Bible presented as demonic possession, but were most likely patients suffering from schizophrenia, epilepsy or even depression.

Considering the quite infamous example of Anneliese Michel, the inspiration behind the movie-“Exorcism of Emily Rose”; was a 23-year old young lady who suffered from epilepsy and severe depression, but was convinced of being possessed, with the influence of a pastor and her parents she disregarded seeking medical attention and soon stared to death.

One would think that a patients beliefs cannot and should not interfere with a proper diagnosis, but encouraging the patient to get exorcised over getting psychiatric diagnosis may lead such fatal consequences.

However concerning the question of Demon’s existence…… it may just be the brain and not Lucifer.

Written by: Mridul Prathap