00:00:00.000hello simone i'm excited to be here with you today today we are going to be talking about
00:00:03.780the phenomenon of the surge in exorcisms that have been happening with articles like demand
00:00:10.780for catholic exorcism reportedly on the rise so we'll go over a couple articles that talk about
00:00:16.820this recent surge in exorcisms and then we will go over why exorcisms are and people know on this
00:00:24.740show we're generally seen as having a and i think it's important to cite your bias is a pretty
00:00:29.020anti-catholic bias but catholic exorcisms specifically are demonstrably a good thing
00:00:34.560they hold on no we actually love catholics we have a bias against the catholic church
00:00:40.920and the vatican the vatican yes yeah we're anti-vatican channel yes yes but but this is
00:00:47.500one thing the vatican does very well yeah we're weirdly despite being very anti-mysticism as well
00:00:53.940we're weirdly like yeah exorcism's great this is yeah i think a lot of people would be surprised
00:00:59.640because they know that we're very anti-vatican and we're very anti-blue we're anti-mysticism
00:01:04.200many people would even call our form of christianity secular in its nature so they
00:01:09.220would be surprised that we would be like hey that thing that like even catholics get kind
00:01:13.720of embarrassed about the whole normalization yeah you don't hear them talk about it exorcisms
00:01:17.960and i'm like no that's really good like because we believe in evidence-based interventions and
00:01:24.680guess what let's see well yeah which is what i'm gonna go into if you're like well i've heard all
00:01:29.120these horror stories about exorcisms where people died and where children were abused and none of
00:01:35.820those were carried out uh by catholics they were all carried out by pentecostals oh see i told you
00:01:42.380pentecostals that's who you gotta watch out for charismatic pentecostals too they are witches
00:01:48.460just pentecostal equals witch i don't know what to tell you malcolm that episode went live on our
00:01:54.220private where we point out that many of the practices in charismatic pentecostal christianity
00:02:00.040do not come from christianity but they were actually borrowed from a cultist and theosophist
00:02:06.120of the 1920s which they're they literally just took witchcraft and integrated it into christianity
00:02:13.880but i didn't want to be too spicy with that one so we we shelved that episode yeah you were like
00:02:18.580personally i don't i don't why you are willing to go so hard on catholics and you're not willing
00:02:23.480to go hard on pentecostal pentecostals anyway anyway i'll keep going here i love your your
00:02:32.720it's it's actually about voting so if we run for president the pentecostal vote is in a very
00:02:39.680important vote i don't know i feel like the pentecostals are fractured enough because they're
00:02:44.660also they're much more likely to be following individual charismatic preachers to be like
00:02:49.200yeah all the other pentecostals are witches we're just not and so they're all gonna be like yeah
00:02:54.440pentecostals my guy actually vets everything he does my god yeah my guy they're not his magical
00:03:00.740spells are only from god from jesus but everyone else's magical spells and they're speaking in
00:03:06.760tongues that is all satanic and i don't know when i speak in tongues it's just not it's fine all
00:03:12.920right all right so to go into this according to the baltimore sun requests for exorcisms are
00:03:17.260increasing and priests performing the ritual are in greater demand than ever with the number of
00:03:21.800exorcists in the united states growing from about a dozen 15 years ago to approximately 150 today
00:03:27.860so that is insane to me because i thought they were this still is very when i was in college
00:03:34.360remember i had that really embarrassing crush on the catholic who then became a priest
00:03:39.040and there were there were on two occasions he was like oh yeah like i'm gonna go to an exorcism
00:03:44.500today but i think that happened at least twice so i thought they were like way more common if
00:03:50.080like within one college he wanted to like go recreationally watch he was no i think he was
00:03:54.900gonna help the priest you know like to be the assistant exerciser i don't know what the words
00:03:58.840are here but like you i think he was gonna help the priest exercise the demon and i was like the
00:04:04.860vatican so he was like on fast track to well because he's the best well no the last time i
00:04:09.660saw him was at the vatican but i i think he came back to like now he's in the yeah but i mean he
00:04:15.840was on fast track to like church stuff anyway no he's well yeah no but like he's i mean i would
00:04:20.480want him because he like really knew his catholic stuff but like i would want him at an extra he's
00:04:25.600actually a great example of how catholicism can lower like why they have a lower birth rate than
00:04:30.660other iterations of christianity yeah because you would have wanted to marry him and likely
00:04:35.600would have converted to his religion and had lots of kids with him but instead he wanted to become
00:04:40.100a priest yeah for the backstory just so i i relive the most embarrassing parts of my life
00:04:46.200on this podcast because you also won't delete my old videos on this channel when i was in college
00:04:52.360there was this guy in my honors class on the divine comedy that had like a jew and a and a
00:04:59.020pagan wiccan goth girl and me the like raised buddhist liberal and then some like protestants
00:05:08.000in it talking about dante's divine comedy which is of course very catholic in its inspiration as
00:05:13.680hate fan fiction and then he was the one catholic so i i became very i i'm like i'm attracted to
00:05:21.560passion and intelligence and he had a lot of it for catholicism so then i got this big crush on
00:05:26.640him because he also looked kind of like matt damon not retarded like we're like real matt damon
00:05:32.700like good and so i was like okay like i i i'm like i have a huge crush on you and so i would
00:05:38.940i worked at a cupcake shop at the time and i worked closing shifts so i would get all these
00:05:43.420free very expensive cupcakes at the end of the day and i'd walk home with these heavy bags until
00:05:47.320my fingers bled and i would he was an aria in his dorm and i'd be like oh well i'm going to deliver
00:05:52.340cupcakes for your the students in your dorm and then while there you know i'd show up in his room
00:05:57.060with all the cupcakes and i'd be like oh i have this question i just can you explain to me why
00:06:02.000gays go to hell and then like he'd sit down and like talk to me about like the hardest things
00:06:06.540about over and over again you asked him about catholic doctrine because he found that that
00:06:11.260was the one thing that he'd get really nerdy about it would allow me to stay in his room longer
00:06:14.820and then one day he's like simone like like these these meetings with you have really
00:06:22.100moved me and helped me decide my direction in life and i'm gonna join the priesthood
00:06:28.220that is this is how good my game is ever but yeah no this is this is maybe maybe part of the reason
00:06:35.420why it's not bad but think about this in another context if you'd been in another denomination
00:06:39.800he would have gotten married to you to keep talking about that stuff and well and what's
00:06:44.960what's interesting actually is i don't know how i came across it maybe it was like one of his other
00:06:48.280assignments or something that i reviewed in the class or something but maybe it was a poem or an
00:06:52.520essay about him trying to figure out his vocation in life like should he choose like the sacrament
00:06:58.020of becoming a priest or should he choose like the sacrament of having or maybe that was how he
00:07:03.340explained it in his letter to me where he told me he was going to become a priest or something
00:07:06.560like he he really and he'd like he'd broken up with a girlfriend at one point earlier like he
00:07:13.000i think he was really thinking hard about it in college and then he just he erred in favor of
00:07:17.600instead of choosing to marry choosing the priesthood and that's yeah i mean yeah if he
00:07:24.480were in another religion he could have done both and been amazing at it and it's it is it's it's
00:07:29.320going to be a difficult thing i think for the catholic church because he wasn't so far as i
00:07:34.840could tell i mean maybe he was gay right like it could be that he just wasn't really attracted to
00:07:38.440his girlfriend was like do i want to have sort of a loveless marriage of children or do i want to
00:07:43.020become a priest so that i mean that i feel like that was that's really where the the catholic
00:07:49.260priesthood makes a lot of sense is like if you're just really like you're really kind of gritting
00:07:54.400your teeth about it here's an out I think that's fair but yeah I still I'm disappointed when I
00:08:00.840think about all the people who could have amazing kids and be amazing priests but yeah well I'm glad
00:08:05.560because then I get to marry you right no it's true I know I'm so I'm so you and I are so perfect for
00:08:10.780each other yeah to continue here yeah no about us being like really well matched what I'm saying I
00:08:15.140do sometimes I watch the podcast with the volume off and I think how well we get along comes across
00:08:20.840even better when it's on silent and you're like oh they actually do seem to like each other um
00:08:25.620monsignor stephen rosetti a washington dc based priest and licensed psychologist told the sun
00:08:35.220we're getting more and more people needing an exorcism there are only about 150 exorcists in
00:08:40.540the country and they are being flooded with requests including many from desperate people
00:08:45.380pleading for assistance we can't keep up with the demand now and it's only going to get worse
00:08:49.760surely the the catholic church or vatican has the ability to like ramp up its its exorcism
00:08:55.440training programs yeah and and of the church first always see or where they screen the person
00:09:02.480to see if it's a mental illness more than 99 of those claiming possessions are actually experiencing
00:09:09.140a mental illness and they're referred to mental health providers by the church i think they
00:09:14.100shouldn't be so strict about that and we'll get into why in just a second um but first uh what i
00:09:20.500want to go into is what happens in these exorcisms okay oh there's another fun article here i guess
00:09:27.720because all we know is is what we see in the movie the exorcist which i guess is not is it
00:09:33.880is it not pope leo the 14th host exorcist at the vatican surge in satanism cases raises concern
00:09:44.840for vulnerable believers so vatican and exorcist warns of rising occult threats urging trained
00:09:51.580clergy to safeguard vulnerable faithful worldwide in a private audience on march 13th the pope
00:09:57.000received representatives blah blah blah signaling renewed attention to what the church officials
00:10:03.060have described as a growing spiritual crisis. The delegation presented a detailed report
00:10:07.820highlighting an increase in the numbers linked to occultism, esotericism, and Satanism, warning
00:10:13.480that many individuals are suffering serious spiritual consequences as a result. The private
00:10:18.660meeting, details of which were shared by EWTN Vatican, centered on the rising demand for trained
00:10:25.320exorcists and the church's preparedness to respond. So basically, even at this 150 number now,
00:10:33.060they now feel that we don't have enough and we need more and the 150 is so few yeah but it used
00:10:41.000to only be two dozen no but imagine like three per state in the united states that's that that
00:10:46.520is vanishingly unusual well how many times do you need an exorcism in your life simone it's not
00:10:52.180dude i mean you actually fix the problem no no here's the thing here no here's the thing is that
00:10:57.160our kids convergently evolved exorcisms just on their own yeah yeah and so i i know that people
00:11:03.420intuitively want them and that's why i'm shocked that they're not being asked for more
00:11:06.740yeah so what is interesting here is the catholic church itself here is saying that many of these
00:11:14.260exorcisms are downstream of people engaging with esotericism um which again goes to what we talk
00:11:20.960about mysticism is the enemy and engaging with it puts you in a dangerous position not just
00:11:27.240from a theological perspective but from a secular perspective right yes it opens you up to
00:11:33.880believing that your subjective experiences when they are not in concordance with reality
00:11:41.400supersede reality right that can lead to many forms of dangerous and disordered thinking
00:11:48.460and therefore it is of utility to purge this from the way you perceive reality but could it lead to
00:11:54.960disordered mental states even in a secular context it could require an exorcism to correct and would
00:12:01.020an exorcism correct then we will get to that in a second but yes right okay so what does an exorcism
00:12:07.680actually look like in practice the minor simple exorcism so this is something i did not know of
00:12:14.000These are common, non-solemn prayers used to break general demonic influence, temptation, or oppression.
00:12:21.920They appear at the rites of baptism for adults and children, and any priest or even lay people in limited forms can use related prayers from the appendix of the original ritual book.
00:12:35.020These are not dramatic rituals, but prayers invoked in God's protection, often involving the sign of the cross, holy water, or simple invocations.
00:12:44.720Play Catholics can pray similar deliverance prayers privately for themselves or others, but not in an official capacity.
00:12:52.520So, certain types of very devout Catholics, they are doing exorcisms all the time.
00:12:59.580yeah they're over-the-counter exorcisms so you kind of have these layers of there's over-the-counter
00:13:04.400exorcisms and there's probably like kind of prescription exorcisms like at baptisms where
00:13:08.080like a priest is doing it and then you have like inpatient exorcisms where like the priest is
00:13:12.740coming to your house yes these exorcisms if you want to get a feel for what they're like
00:13:18.240they remind me of like you know you have like a vampire hunter movie or whatever and like you know
00:13:22.840they walk into a house and they like chant some little thing or they put holy water at the door
00:13:26.760they you know yeah they're just all parts of their little day have little rituals tied to
00:13:32.240them that come from books of approved rituals i wonder if you're crossing yourself remember how
00:13:36.760in peru which is very catholic if you were in an uber or something at least half the drivers would
00:13:42.480cross themselves whenever they were at a stoplight yeah yeah and when we took off on planes people
00:13:47.860would cross themselves and i'd be like oh god like before i knew it was a normal thing i was
00:13:52.360like what is wrong with this plane does everyone think they're gonna die it's happening yeah so
00:13:58.960culturally and was in our religion we take a very anti-ritual perspective because rituals do
00:14:07.680waste time but rituals have many positive psychological effects absolutely and so
00:14:13.220if you are somebody who is biologically predispositioned to get into rituals we are
00:14:19.900just not as we pointed out like religions and practices co-evolve with populations that practice
00:14:25.680them although for people who point out that simone is x percent jewish and therefore jewish
00:14:31.720she's equally catholic to jewish she has a catholic grandparent too so you know my dad was an altar
00:14:37.460boy yeah and you're much more into rituals than i am i i am you are you actually do not mind like
00:14:44.920church music and stuff like that oh no i love a good catholic mass you kidding me yeah i find
00:14:49.800them intolerable it's like a graduation ceremony oh i hate graduation ceremonies
00:14:56.540something like that where you're just like oh my god i don't want to i'd i'd rather
00:15:03.540sit through like actually the oscars in person
00:15:07.880oh i mean so one sitting through the oscars in person wouldn't that be interesting
00:15:18.120just what i mean at least they're like attempting to entertain me no but i think people respond to
00:15:25.280this biologically differently i i i suspect that there's many people out there i mean there
00:15:30.740obviously appear to be that just love mass right like they think it's the best and they really
00:15:36.980well and then there are different flavors of mass don't forget that there's all these different
00:15:40.260types and so you know what kind of types down collect all your types gotta catch them very
00:15:45.340where you collect the whole set but actually catholic people do seem to have a predilection
00:15:49.260to collecting things it is of course the the catholic house where you see all the different
00:15:53.500jesus candles and all the different jesus pictures like this is the thing for like especially
00:15:59.080hispanic catholics i'm from where i grew up in texas because you had a big immigrant population
00:16:02.900is biblically themed collectibles you never saw no when we were in texas you never saw
00:16:11.540anyone was like maybe like we didn't take many cabs but i would say like a cab driver was like
00:16:16.38015 candles was like different pictures of jesus on them or the saint mary or that was really
00:16:21.520common in peru for like tons of religious paraphernalia hanging from okay that's what
00:16:26.260i'm talking about right okay okay that's what's that's like the protection they're like amulets
00:16:31.840religiously very like the collector approach but okay yeah pokemon it all the way now this
00:16:38.860contrast was major exorcisms so what happens in a major exorcism all right the inpatient version
00:16:45.000yeah yeah the inpatient version so these are for when somebody is suspected of having a demonic
00:16:50.800possession where a demon is believed to be in control of the person's body or actions this is
00:16:57.500in a sacramental a sacred sign not a sacrament like a baptism or eucharist and it can only be
00:17:04.480performed by an ordained priest or bishop who received explicit permission from the local bishop
00:17:10.560the diocese ordinaire the priest must be pious knowledgeable and prudent and of good character
00:17:16.120per canon 1172 and many diocese now appoint dedicated exorcists and training them often
00:17:22.840involves apprenticeship or courses through groups like the international association of exorcists
00:17:28.460recognized by the vatican which was the organization that i was just talking about
00:17:32.100that's now meeting and being like we need more exorcists they have an organization i we need to
00:17:37.840guys ramp up the infrastructure guys you have the the capability i'm disappointed what they do need
00:17:45.440and they don't have right now is special exorcism wear like catholics are very good at like choosing
00:17:51.440outfits yeah yeah you need your yeah just like look at the anime watch anime and just like take
00:17:57.200from that okay yes have all the atelier and you can get away with it because you're like i'm a
00:18:01.420i'm a professional vatican exorcist like i oh my god yes wear some sort of like big hat saying you
00:18:09.520know like you have to be armed you know yeah yeah yeah anyone who's not aware of just the amount of
00:18:17.980artistry that goes into it like catholic vestments i think it's an articles of interest podcast on
00:18:23.500catholic vestments that can really give you greater appreciation of the artistry that goes
00:18:26.840into these garments they are like it it is the true where right like high fashion like now like
00:18:33.620brands like chanel or whatever like they're not they're not good anymore the only place like the
00:18:38.500last runway on earth is catholic vestments i will rest at that go on okay so signs of a possible
00:18:45.500possession okay may include speaking unknown languages supernatural strengths aversion to
00:18:51.540holy things, cross, holy water, sacraments, knowledge of hidden things, or a violent reaction
00:18:56.520to prayer. Getting permission, like the exorcist consults a bishop for permission, and this can
00:19:03.420take months to be allowed, right, to go to the next step, which is interesting because the right
00:19:09.160itself is pretty, like, not that big a thing. So the right itself, typically in a church, chapel,
00:19:15.520or private safe space, the afflicted person is often accompanied by supportive family or
00:19:20.800assistants they may be gently restrained if there's a risk to themselves or others the exorcist
00:19:26.140wears a surplus and purple stole it begins with prayers and preparation the litany of saints
00:19:32.900plasms gospel readings e.g passages about jesus casting out demons the lord's prayer hail mary
00:19:38.840and creed this would bore the demon right out of me if if i was pretending i'd be like no
00:19:45.540oh i just have a visceral negative reaction to ritual and boring like chanting and stuff like
00:19:53.340that i'm like nope inefficient but we need to get to the point what are we talking to malcolm
00:19:59.300or are we talking to the demon right now right the demon that's controlling me high functioning
00:20:04.640possessed is what i am yeah use of sacraments a blessed holy water is sprinkled recalling baptism
00:20:14.480christ victory the signal of the cross is made repeatedly a crucifix is shown or used the
00:20:20.060exorcist may lay hands on a person or perform exerflation breathing on the face to invoke the
00:20:25.500holy spirit now note here right this actually isn't that different from what happened in the
00:20:30.020movie the exorcist right like a lot of the exorcist i mean it does look creepy right to do
00:20:36.220so i can see why it works for movies they then do exorcism prayers a mix of deprecatory prayers
00:20:43.840supplicants asking god to deliver the person and impressatory prayers direct commands to the demon
00:20:50.300in christ's name e.g i adjure you or depart the demon may be asked its name the right can last
00:20:57.860for minutes to hours and may require multiple sessions well if you're going to spend months
00:21:02.500getting something approved at least take a few hours often may require multiple sessions over
00:21:07.100days weeks or longer reactions if any vary widely some people show no visible signs other have
00:21:13.360convulsions vomiting or verbal outbursts which the church views cautiously it ends with thanksgiving
00:21:20.120prayers blessings and advice for ongoing spiritual life frequent confession eucharist prayer and
00:21:26.960avoiding occult practices and then they're what i love is they have aftercare like like they're
00:21:32.600doing bdsm or so i i go into how much oh no all of like bdsm stuff is with like oh boy yeah hey
00:21:41.300they they they also do like the if you look up the the tools for like hurting yourself uh you
00:21:46.760get them from like the catholic modification buyers and then the bdsm buyers and the tools
00:21:52.880are often the same tools like anything they're using the bdsm people also use if it works it
00:21:58.300works you know it's aftercare the person is encouraged to live a sacrament and prayerful
00:22:04.240life follow-up sessions may occur if needed exorcists emphasize that true freedom comes
00:22:08.840through Christ, not just the ritual. So I'll go through different exorcist types here. So the
00:22:14.540Eastern Orthodox Church, they perform exorcisms, but it's more integrated into regular priestly
00:22:19.300ministry. Many priests can perform prayers of exorcism from books like the Great Book of Needs
00:22:25.060attributed to saints like Basil the Great and John of Chrysostom. So basically in the Eastern
00:22:30.420Orthodox tradition, they have a structure for it. Like Catholicism, there's not as many negative
00:22:36.120outcomes from it the problem was even particularly charismatic exorcism although like lutherans and
00:22:42.120anglicans also do exorcisms call in a form that's called deliverance ministries or prayers to cast
00:22:50.400out demons and invoking the name of jesus anointing in oil etc part of the problem for these groups
00:22:56.860is they don't have an official rule book so many will go further than if they were operating off
00:23:03.400of some central authority than it ever would have a sign to them. As we've pointed out with
00:23:09.080Protestants, their witch hunts were dramatically bloodier than things like the Inquisition
00:23:13.540because they didn't have any central authority reigning them in or anyone in another state
00:23:19.200being like, hey, are we acting a little crazy here? Who could say, yeah, you've gone a little
00:23:23.760crazy this time. You need to dial it back. They never had to worry about an external authority
00:23:28.700reviewing what they did but i want to quickly go over some specific cases that we know about
00:23:33.940with these vatican approved exorcisms how they turned out and what you'll see is universally
00:23:40.580pretty much positive results from these like whatever is happening to these people this
00:23:46.280appears to be fixing it and and durably fixing it which is something we don't generally see from like
00:23:52.360a psychologist visit which is when i i think with the the exorcisms that i might have heard about
00:23:57.120were about hauntings and i just checked to make sure that the catholic church does officially do
00:24:03.200house blessings and and exorcisms for hauntings and they do and honestly i feel like sometimes
00:24:10.200something just happens or you like watch a bad movie or whatever and you get the creeps in your
00:24:14.340house and now like there was a period where you just watched too many mr ballin videos and every
00:24:20.140like lock and bolt all the doors i mean we still do anyway but like very obsessively and like
00:24:27.100be very afraid about like your closet doors being you know like oh god like oh shower curtains being
00:24:35.060closed in our old apartments and stuff you'd be like do never leave the shower curtains closed
00:24:39.720somebody can hide in there yes yeah but so like sometimes you just get freaked out in your old
00:24:43.560own house and if you are a catholic and you you just really start to have problems with your
00:24:49.260house it's great that you could just have someone if there's something psychological you can do to
00:24:54.900feel safer yeah and honestly like i would feel better it's like no like if it if it was a ghost
00:24:59.860i have my bases covered the guy came he he spiritually fumigated my house the ghosties
00:25:06.360are gone that's a huge quality of life improvement right from a secular even from a secular perspective
00:25:10.880now it's a secularist he's watching this are you not now jealous of the catholic who can
00:25:14.920make their ghosts go away i honestly i bet though that there are secular people who have had
00:25:20.960exorcisms of their house possibly even from catholics just to like feel okay with it i mean
00:25:26.080i remember i think even on unsolved mysteries what's his face who kept bringing holy water to
00:25:31.980stuff and going to priests shut up i do it's okay i came prepared what are you prepared with
00:25:37.120oh you'll see man oh ryan what you've outdumbed yourself you know i thought this was going to be
00:25:45.160funny but now i'm actually happy that i have it it's holy water inside here i assumed it was holy
00:25:49.540water like i could be like hey shane look over those bushes and like a demon sneaking up on me
00:25:54.400i'd be like hey shane look over there in the bushes don't try demon fucking pull it out like
00:25:57.280that oh that's spooky yeah right obviously we didn't travel all the way down to texas to observe
00:26:02.860a simple old bridge the goat man's bridge i don't even know if he was catholic but he would bring
00:26:08.480his holy water with him he's like i'm just i don't know so there was that yeah i mean i i just
00:26:14.640one of my favorite youtube videos is the jenny nicholson where she reviews that old ghost hunting
00:26:19.160show where they had the premise of we are going to bring a ghost hunting show that goes and checks
00:26:25.720house for ghosts and then we'll have a team that like looks for what could be causing this other
00:26:30.660than ghosts like multi-wiring and everything like that yeah and they always found a very obvious
00:26:36.500explanation our host from the beginning goes to the local library or interviews local historians
00:26:42.880to see if anything spooky or tragic has happened nearby paranormal investigator michelle comes
00:26:48.900across a story of a little girl who died close to the home and yeah i used to think it mattered if
00:26:54.140the ghost had lived in the house or been to the house or been aware of the house's existence it
00:27:00.680turns out that doesn't matter yeah you know fish gonna swim ghost gonna haunt but the ghost team
00:27:05.280would always like and it was like a and we'll never know what's right and it's basically just
00:27:10.760like a guy pointing at the faulty wiring like fix that right away yeah it's so good so good
00:27:19.660although honestly like i even non-faulty wiring stuff non-carbon monoxide problems like our kids
00:27:26.220just turning to us and being like well i saw the ghost and we're like what goes to darling
00:27:31.940believe in ghosts i'll tell you that oh my gosh yeah and they're and you know they're like they
00:27:35.720blame ghosts for bad things that they do all the time a ghost is yeah they call them ghost is
00:27:40.960though if something is wrong i'm like who put this in your bed octavian octavian doesn't do
00:27:47.260it as much as the other ones it's more like titan type would be like ghost is ghost is yeah like
00:27:52.860kids can be creepy sometimes and even that would be enough i think for some people to just get the
00:27:58.720permanent creepies in their house because their kids being like we know it's that many of the
00:28:04.060unsolved mystery stories involved children coming to their bedrooms at night and being like i saw a
00:28:09.080girl and they're like what do you mean you saw a girl and like then they start freaking out and
00:28:14.100it just i think we have too many kids for ghosts is the problem right like ghosts only seem to
00:28:18.120visit kids when they're alone right when you get like five kids in a room and you don't get no
00:28:22.020ghosts no not true because our kids see ghosts all the time but anyway you know i'm just saying
00:28:28.680yeah i'm glad that there are haunting exorcisms and also i just think they're super useful did
00:28:33.540i tell you about this conversation i had was octavian about the future police right so
00:28:37.140i was like like what what do you know about god and he goes oh well god is like the future police
00:28:41.580i was like well do you believe in him and he goes i've seen him like
00:28:46.260not only did he see him he ran up to him and hugged them they have a problem with like
00:28:53.720oh you see god you see jesus but i always i always come down after that and i'm like oh
00:28:59.600i don't know if i believe that you really saw him and they're like no dude and he and so he was
00:29:07.080telling me when he said this he goes but you don't believe in god daddy because because you
00:29:11.520you always doubt his experiences yeah i always i always doubt his future for his experiences
00:29:16.440but i love that yeah of course i believe it what do you do give him a hug thank you yeah i mean yes
00:29:29.500but also like that's really funny that is the best we were we were having somebody trying to
00:29:37.940convince us over emails that like no believing in like a spiritual like not real god is so much
00:29:43.200more real and i'm like okay like you can believe that if you want to but from my perspective things
00:29:47.020are either like real or they're supernatural and if they're supernatural this looks like a category
00:29:51.960that everything else is supernatural we generally categorize as dubious and octavian just takes it
00:29:57.460of course i met him what do you mean is he like one of his friends is gonna be like i don't
00:30:02.860believe in god and he's gonna like look around and being like you haven't what have you not met
00:30:07.940him it's like have you not seen a mailman you don't believe yeah really like where do you think
00:30:15.700the mail comes from oh god anyway to continue here benici italy december 2021 the woman can
00:30:25.020went to confession at the church of saint mary of mont barco with her family was out warning she
00:30:31.180began convulsing violently screaming blasphemies and hurling insults at priests in multiple
00:30:35.280languages including latin which she reportedly didn't know well i mean she went to enough
00:30:40.740catholic things she probably knows a few latin words she became physically aggressive priest
00:30:45.360believes this was a sudden demonic possession after family reports of prior disturbances
00:30:50.760four franciscan friars performed a quote-unquote difficult major exorcism rite that lasted for
00:30:56.240nine hours it involved prayer holy water and the full roman ritual but the thing is is it went away
00:31:03.060after they did this like they fit like this is clearly some form of psychiatric episode
00:31:08.880and so we're going to go into why this this seems to work so well because exorcism is actually
00:31:14.160designed very well to have the required effect and i personally think it should be widened in
00:31:22.180its utilization for psychiatric illnesses and not just physicians i do not i agree yeah yeah
00:31:28.160and come to think of it you're totally right about that because one of the ways that you can
00:31:31.120get yourself out of these things is just to believe that you're okay like yeah we'll go over
00:31:35.200the science around just believing you're okay and how much of an impact it has yeah loyola
00:31:42.260ammons family the demon house gary indiana 2011-2012 after moving into a rental house in
00:31:48.3402011 the single mother and three children ages 79 reported escalating horrors swarms of black
00:31:52.940flies in the winter shady figures unexplainable footsteps scratches appearing on the skin
00:31:57.920and a daughter levitating a nine-year-old boy walking backwards up the wall in front of dcs
00:32:03.680caseworker nurse and police captain the kids showed superhuman strengths spoken deep voices
00:32:10.620it had knowledge of things they couldn't know i mean oh come on that's like our kids all the time
00:32:15.460indy walking around being like yeah they do the same stuff but kids love to speak in demon voices
00:32:21.200yeah they don't know stuff that i have no idea how they know all the time yeah i'm often how do
00:32:26.720you know this doctors and psychologists first treated as a mental illness if officials witnessed
00:32:31.440enough and the church got involved catholic priest father michael migner performed multiple
00:32:35.880minor exorcisms in the family and one major one on the house the final intense session lasted hours
00:32:41.660the family ended up moving out though this this one did not fix it i mean that house yeah i mean
00:32:48.280even just the memories you had there you wouldn't want to keep living there that's insane i'm glad
00:32:53.120they moved away that's freaking terrifying although i mean our kids kind of crawl backward
00:32:58.480of walls too come to think of it maybe they just had rambunctious children not enough of them
00:33:04.360clearly. So what was I going to say? By the way, we need to start VC outreach tomorrow. Like,
00:33:08.860have you been building direct outreach with specialized email headers, like subject lines
00:33:13.800for each person? I mean, I already made, I have, I have the personalized info, but yeah, I mean,
00:33:20.600I can just start that proper tomorrow. Okay. Yeah. So, so I mean, you can use an AI to work
00:33:26.260on it too, to create specialized, like we're reaching out to you because I find to be the
00:33:31.700best header because you're explaining to them why we're reaching out i'm reaching out because
00:33:36.040you work in x area or you invest in x and i'm relevant to this or we went to the same college
00:33:42.960or something like that so when do exorcisms go wrong before we go into the science here
00:33:48.960when charismatic christians do it so fort worst texas april 2025 in this one a 23 year old
00:33:55.840alexander taylor bladens beat his 58 year old mother to death in their home likely was a wooden
00:34:03.320jewelry box he was covered in blood holding a bible and told the police it was an exorcism
00:34:09.580he also allegedly said i was doing the witchcraft to kill my mom this just doesn't appear to be a
00:34:15.220this appears to be a crazy person the and sent a snapchat photo of her body to friends to talk
00:34:24.620about the exorcism a dog in the home was also killed so just a random charismatic christian
00:34:30.740here for pierce florida the 2025 this was a mother who performed what she called was an
00:34:37.640exorcism on her kid and he died due to suffocation and trauma from the ritual and she obviously sent
00:34:46.480to jail but there's been many such cases of this i don't want to go into too many because you know
00:34:50.320i get triggered and i have problems with this although the very prominent god what was her
00:34:54.040name a passengers mother they very much like had this mormon they go crazy with them too right yeah
00:35:00.740demonic possession oriented approach to her children's like alleged or perceived on her end
00:35:08.020to be behavioral issues so yeah i mean like them being you know duct taped to chairs and forced to
00:35:13.400do things she thought she was expeling demons from them so it just seems like only catholics can
00:35:17.920handle this and i really appreciate that they have like you need to be certified you know you need to
00:35:23.620be like the designated exorcism person because yeah i think that they will be better for most
00:35:31.540people than seeing a psychologist so why are exorcisms psychologically i say this as somebody
00:35:36.860who was trained as a neuroscientist and a psychologist modern psychology has descended
00:35:40.940into a weird cult you can watch our videos on it it is not generally good for people anymore
00:35:45.800it's generally going to do a lot more harm than good for you and so they're basically just like
00:35:51.100priest of the urban monoculture attempting to induct you and create dependency and so why not
00:35:56.720not in a good way i i feel like you know going regularly to confession maybe getting something
00:36:01.320exercised but generally i think devout catholics thrive whereas people who see therapists five
00:36:07.360times a week don't so why why why why does catholicism work it's such a blunt instrument
00:36:14.500something like an exorcism right it's because the way that they do it the constrained start
00:36:20.360a big ritual that feels like a big ritual have people get into your personal space and do a
00:36:26.520bunch of things which are going to shock and disorient you be in your personal space yell
00:36:33.920things at you in another language basically flashing lights right splashing water on you
00:36:40.280you know and this is just is this a path like church version of bopping it is it is and then
00:36:46.700it's over you know you contextualize something changed the thing that changed happened now the
00:36:53.740thing that changed is over and that is from a psych like just purely psychological tools
00:36:59.620a great way to reframe how you see yourself in the moment you can see yourself as having these
00:37:09.300faults and then the exorcism has happened and now you say and now i am somebody without these faults
00:37:16.220because this event that represents like a a bridge or doorway event right like i was once in this
00:37:23.060state i then did x event and now i'm in this state and i'm totally different what i think here
00:37:29.940very similar to many baptism rituals which is i was just thinking that yeah like being born again
00:37:35.860is is very much a new way to be like well now i'm better i'm different before i was this type of
00:37:41.820person then i do big ritual but i think the exorcism rituals in many ways better than like
00:37:47.740a generic baptism and it's closer to what original or i would say that the way that baptism should
00:37:54.460work which is actually being dunked underwater in a river a cold river often that's shocking
00:38:00.060that feels like oh this is new and different and weird right
00:38:04.300the preacher done washed away all my sins and transgressions going to a church and having a
00:38:21.040little thing on your head that i do not think is going to shock a person in the way a traditional
00:38:26.300baptism would have to make it very easy to have a before and after tied to this event but there's
00:38:35.180a reason why things like baptism and exorcism are practiced to create these interstitial periods
00:38:43.160that allow you to transition from one of you of and and your view of yourself hugely controls big
00:38:51.660behaviors obviously the study we mentioned a lot but i'm gonna go through a lot of studies here
00:38:54.500is the vietnam war study you know where even being addicted to hard drugs something as simple
00:38:59.920as moving from the context of being in a war environment to the context of being in a home
00:39:04.020front environment like being back at the as a civilian it made like 80 of people lose their
00:39:09.440addictions now that's not to be like a hard-coded thing you can switch so much your perception of
00:39:15.600yourself and i've often argued this is one of the areas where something like gender transition
00:39:20.200can have benefits to an individual why they might see benefits initially is because they have changed
00:39:25.800their contextualization of how they see themselves now would it be better to just give somebody who
00:39:30.320has gender dysphoria and exorcism of course now they can contextualize oh i got through
00:39:35.620this thing i'm on the other side of it yeah thoughts you were about to say something
00:39:42.000this kind of well in general i think more broadly if people are like well i'd have the doubts
00:39:48.880just look at the placebo effect it's so clear that hold on i want to go into the placebo effect
00:39:53.420because somebody can say i have doubts about this i don't believe in this i know it's only working
00:40:00.720for these people because of the placebo effect therefore it won't work on me to which i would
00:40:06.680refer to them the 2020 10 study placebos without deception a randomized controlled trial in
00:40:12.060irritable bowel syndrome yeah patients were explicitly told they were getting inert sugar
00:40:17.020pills. Like a sugar pill with no medication, they were told, yet still improved significantly.
00:40:23.440Well, now to be fair, they were told basically this is a sugar pill. The placebo effect is
00:40:28.000something that has been found to be helpful for some people, but that's what we're doing here.
00:40:32.680And I think that- Yeah. A 59% versus a 35% effect. Huge difference.
00:40:37.780Yeah. Super huge. Yeah. Super huge. Also you see this, and I mentioned this to you
00:40:42.800as well. And we've talked about this on other podcasts. There was one study that I love that
00:40:48.160did proper sleep analysis on people. We're going to go into a number of sleep studies,
00:40:52.160so don't get too into it. Oh, okay. Go ahead then. Okay. 2002, a controlled trial of anthropic
00:40:59.200surgery for osteoporosis of the knee. So sham surgery, just skin incisions under anesthesia
00:41:05.400and no actual procedure worked just as well as real anthropocytic cleaning or smoothing of the
00:41:11.500knee showing placebo surgery can be as effective as invasive surgery for operations for pain this
00:41:18.640is on 180 patients um and at a one and two year interval pain and function scores were identical
00:41:27.140across the true groups essentially zero difference between sham and the group 95 cis ruled out
00:41:35.420clinically meaningful differences so there was major surgeries and they ended up changing surgical
00:41:41.100practices of this that were being done smoothing the knee right like that's a major smoothing the
00:41:47.740knee a major surgery being carried out and it turns out that just giving them an incision
00:41:54.220even one to two years out and then sewing the incision you gave them back up worked
00:41:59.580just as well it's so crazy you know if you get the real surgery there's lots of other things
00:42:07.500that can go wrong right oh yeah you get infected something could have gone wrong with the surgery
00:42:12.460oh yeah every every time you go in for any kind of procedure like that there are risks
00:42:17.660all right let's get 2015 placebo effect of medication cost in parkinson's disease
00:42:22.540the perceived cost of the placebo pill dramatically boosted its effectiveness in parkinson's patients
00:42:30.540expensive looking placebo triggers bigger motor improvements and brain changes
00:42:35.100Patients got the same in ERT placebo, but labeled as expensive versus cheap.
00:42:40.360Oh, it's just like that wine study where people were like, they gave this like swill to people, but we're like, this is very expensive.