Portfolio 201

Abo Laban 1

Rhetoric and Composition 201

Nadine Abo Laban

RHET 201

Section: 08

Summer 2012

Dr. Michael Gibson

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Table of Contents

Cover Letter…………………………………………….. 3

Research Paper………..………………………………. 4

-‐ Introduction…………………………………………... 4

-‐ Critical Analysis……………………………………… 8

-‐ Methodology………………………………………….. 14 -‐ Results of Survey & Analysis...…………………. 15 -‐ Interview……………………………………………….. 17 -‐ Conclusions & Recommendations.………… 18 Works Cited…………………………………………….. 19

Annotated Bibliography………………………….. 21

Appendix A………………………………………......... 22 1st Draft…………………………………………………. 27 2nd Draft………………………………………………… 39 3rd draft………………………………………………… 54 Journal 1……………………………………………….. 72 Journal 2……………………………………………….. 74 Journal 3……………………………………………….. 76 Journal 4……………………………………………….. 78 Journal 5……………………………………………….. 80

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Dear Dr. Gibson,

I initially took this course because it is a prerequisite for my Major. I was all upset

about coming to university everyday during summer. Every one goes to the beach or

travels abroad, while I’ll be spending my summer in classroom writing papers. First

day I enter class, I didn’t know what to expect. I was a bit hesitant, but I said to

myself that I’m going to give it a try and see how the first day goes. I decided that if I

didn’t like it I would drop the course. Five minutes into the first class was all it took

for me to completely change my mind on dropping the class. The classroom was

warm and filled with love and excitement, and the doctor was very sincere and

welcoming. I felt like I was home. I knew from that point on, that this summer will be

different, a good different. Every year during summer my mom would take me to

Sweden to spend the entire summer there. This is my first summer ever not going

there, but rather staying in Egypt. I am now thankful in so many ways, for having

taken the decision to stay.

I would like to thank Dr. Gibson, the funniest professor I’ve ever had, right

after me of course! I learned how to think outside the box, and how to get my own

information. I never knew research could be so fun and. I’ve never been a big fan of

writing papers, I always just look up a couple of links from Google to use as sources,

but Dr. Gibson taught me how much more useful it is to seek information you need on

your own. In fact, by researching on my own, I feel like I became more independent

and I can now count on myself when finding information out when writing a paper. I

am forever grateful for everything this course has taught me. I will never forget you

“ya doctooooor”.

Yours truly,

Nadine Alaa

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Nadine Abo Laban

Rhet 201 section 8

Dr. Gibson

I-search paper (Final Draft)

18th July 2012

Is The Invisible Believable?

Spirits – what are they? Do they really exist? Are they evil? Many questions

have been raised about their existence in the first place, and there is little or no

evidence to support that they are really there as it cannot be scientifically verified.

Well, they sure have had their “fame” considering the amount of literary works they

have been mentioned in, such as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth, Mark

Twain’s “A Ghost Story”, and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. Being a part

of literally work is not the only way ghosts/spirits came about, for they have also been

part of movies such as Topper, The Others, The Sixth Sense, and Paranormal Activity

(parts 1, 2 & 3). They have had their share of fame, but what makes most people think

they do exist? There is no doubt about the fact that ghosts have been reported

throughout history. The virtual appearance of ghosts we see on television is very

widespread considering the entities may not actually exist. What about the people

who do believe in ghosts? Where do they get their belief? Even the people who have

come to believe that spirits actually exist offer evidence such as photographs,

eyewitness reports, electronic voice phenomena, sudden increases in electromagnetic

radiation, and sudden temperature drops. One must also consider that this evidence

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can be explained without the presence of entities being the solution they come up

with. This, as a result, makes the existence of spiritual entities questionable at best.

Coming to the evidence part of the story, you can see how easily you can put

down any evidence presented to prove the existence of such spirits. Years ago, several

people claimed to have personally witnessed ghosts. It does seem probable that these

people really believe that they saw a ghost or a spirit; however, this is not

scientifically acceptable. You see, these stories go through bias and exaggeration and

other processes that twist and distort the truth, and thus, the result is a whole new

different story. That is why scientists disregard any eyewitness evidence since they

are impossible to test for accuracy. As for photographs, it is said that cameras do not

lie; however, it is just as easy to capture a picture, as it is to fake it. In an Internet

article by James Randi, an example is given about how some spiritualists tried to trick

people into believing that they had captured images of the deceased author, Sir Conan

Doyle, who supposedly became a spirit roaming the earth after his death in 1930. So

far we’ve established the faults in photography and eyewitness testimony about being

proof of the existence of spirits, but what about the electronic voice phenomena

(EVP)? This is a sophisticated term used for voices that have been recorded on tape.

EVP recordings demonstrate the presence of spirits by recording any low or high

pitch abnormal sounds in the surrounding atmosphere. However, even those can be

misleading as Carroll’s source states in his Internet article “Electric Voice

Phenomenon”. Some people are said to have faked the voices recorded in the tapes

through the use of equalizers and such. In the same article, the author cites an

explanation as to why we may think we heard noises and voices of spirits in the

recordings. A psychologist named Jim Alcock said: “when our brains try to find

patterns, they are guided in part by what we expect to hear…people can clearly ‘hear’

voices and words not just in the context of muddled voices, but in a pattern of white

noise in which there are no words at all”. So it has become obvious that EVP

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recordings are as useless as photographs and eyewitness testimonies have proven to

be.

Yet another piece of evidence provided by believers of spirits is abrupt drop in

temperatures. Now, some sprit hunters have actually recorded, and even felt, this

sudden temperature drop, but are they really caused by ghosts? It is said that these

cold areas result from the presence of a spirit who sucks out the heat/electricity from

its surrounding so he can use it to produce sound. The energy the spirit draws from its

surroundings supposedly makes their own energy stronger, but once the spirit makes a

noticeable sound, that energy is lost. However, Carroll finds such evidence to not be

logical. In an online article he wrote he says: “many people report physical changes in

haunted places, especially a feeling of a presence accompanied by temperature drop

and hearing unaccountable sounds”. He states that these people really do believe

they’ve witnessed strange happenings; they are not imagining them. However, Carroll

says that ghosts aren’t the reason behind these incidents. Alas, the counter argument:

what evidence is there that they DO exist? Since science does not play a part, does

that make faith play a huge role?

Perhaps if you experience something unusual yourself you might change your

beliefs. For example, seeing a ghost with your own eyes, or getting possessed by one.

This is a short story about what one particular person went through before deciding to

become a psychic and chase after spirits for a living. Joy Star was a student attending

a psychic development class. This class taught them to meditate and to let their mind

roam free and eventually their “spirit guide” would come to them and guide them in

the right direction. The students would then write down on paper any information that

crosses their minds whatsoever. After a couple of months of practice, Joy noticed his

notes (whatever he supposedly received from his spirit guide) were freakishly

accurate, so he decided to continue his practice outside of class as well. One day,

while meditating, Joy calls out to his telepathic teacher: “Who are you? And what’s

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your name?” All of a sudden, a figure appears in front of him as though he were real.

He wore a wide headband across his forehead, and his body was dressed in what

appeared to be a skirt and a tunic. Immediately, Star’s question was answered and he

wrote down the answer that came to his mind on a piece of paper as usual. After this

vision he looked down on the piece of parchment in his hand and it read “IAD”.

Having gotten a bit frightened after this experience, Joy decided to visit his teacher,

who is originally a psychic. The teacher silently sits there and draws a figure on a

blank piece of paper. After finishing the drawing, the teacher flips the paper and

shows Joy the sketch. With an astonished face, he examines the drawing that appeared

to look exactly like the figure from his vision. From that day onward, Joy Star decided

to become a psychic and donate the remaining time of his life helping people find

their “Spirit Guide”. Since brainwashing or misleading by the teacher may have

occurred, for the students to still believe that they are seeing their “spirit guides” must

mean that the belief in spirits comes mostly from faith because the teacher provided

no evidence of their existence.

But are all spirits good and pure? Psychics themselves have stated the

existence of evil entities that cause corruption in our world, spiritual possession being

a very common example of that. However, demonic possession has many treatments.

Of those treatments is the exorcism ritual, which is the process of expelling evil

entities from a person by making the spirit swear an oath or by commanding the spirit

to leave using the name of a higher power. So how do different religions view the

exorcism ritual? And what are the contradicting views of science and religion on

exorcism and the concept of possession?

To fully understand the concept of possession and why it occurs, a lot of

research had to be carried out, and that is exactly where I started. I hit the American

University in Cairo (AUC) library database, and extracted a lot of helpful sources that

enhanced my knowledge about the topic.

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The first source I encountered was an online portal for news that originates

from Singapore called “AsiaOne.” This source speaks about the movie “The Exorcist”

and then relates it to real life situations. The movie is about a girl named Emily, who

gets possessed by several demons, and this is where a conflict arose between her

parents. The father believed that she was possessed and wanted to seek the help of a

priest, whereas the mother believed that her daughter is schizophrenic and overdosed

her daughter with pills to treat her. The result was that the girl passed away, leaving

both guardians in utter remorse over their deceased daughter. This is very relatable to

real life situations as conflict always arises in such situations when the guardians do

not perceive the exorcism ritual as the only solution. Another similar source to

AsiaOne I came across was an article by Harrap Chambers, which talks about the

ritual itself and how some movies, such as The Exorcist, illustrate how it’s carried out

since witnessing an actual ritual may endanger the person’s life. Another article by

the same author called “Demons” also supports this theory. It explains how in some

cases, when the demon exists one body it may immediately invade any other body

near the victim’s. This makes witnessing an exorcism very dangerous as you are

endangering your life and risking getting possessed by an entity. This also means that

the priest is putting his life on the risk, because even though he is a very religious

person, he is still prone to get possessed by a demon.

Another very interesting article I read was called “Exorcism”, written by

Nancy Caciola. A very intriguing part I found in it was “These evil spirits penetrate

into the bodies of their victims and completely control, or at least strongly influence,

their actions. Possessing spirits may also cause physical illness by interfering with the

body's normal physiological processes or mental illness by affecting the will, intellect,

and emotions”. This previous extract of the article explains what sort of behavior a

demonically possessed person may show. Like the movie I discussed earlier, the main

character had all these symptoms. This article was very helpful also because it

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discussed an aspect that I did not think of, that being the role of gender in the matter.

“Spirit possession afflicts women more often than men, this pattern has been the

subject of much discussion among specialists who study the phenomenon”. I want to

know why it is that women are possessed often that men. The spiritual world is also

classified into men and women. Perhaps men who get attracted to a human woman

decide to possess her. However, that is only my interpretation of it.

Next is an online article, which explains in detail how the ritual is carried out

by several religions as the methods used to expel the demon differs from religion to

religion. It starts out by the priest calling out to the demon to show himself, or to

make any signs of proof that he is inside the person. Usually responses are movement

of furniture or levitation of the victim’s body or none at all. He then starts reading

specific parts of the Bible or Qur’an (depending on the religion), and demands the

spirit to exit the body. If the demon refuses to leave different methods are tried out

and sometimes the ritual is paused so the body can rest. So if the ritual doesn’t work,

Pfeiffer’s book has the answer to that. The book discusses the use of prayers as one of

the methods used during an exorcism, and states that it has proved to be the most

effective. “Belief in demons as the cause of mental health problems is a well-known

phenomenon in many cultures of the world”. The previous sentence is a quote from

his book, which shows that he had no doubts in their existence. Speaking of culture, I

believe it’s a major contributor to our beliefs and our behaviors. Being born a Muslim

has impacted my opinion towards this matter. As a follower of my religion, it goes

without saying that I must believe that spirits exist because my religion says so. Most

of the Arab world, or the Middle East have somewhat the same beliefs because we

were all brought up in the same way. However, on the west, it is different. People are

more individual there and culture does not play a big role in their lives compared to

Arabs. That of course, influences their beliefs because what they believe is mostly

counts on what they perceive. The west side is more technologically advanced and

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therefore, science plays a huge role in their life. Science and religion do not agree on

many things, as religion basically deals with having faith. Science on the other hand

uses facts and figures to prove the existence of something. That is why different

cultures will affect your views and your beliefs, especially on a topic so sensitive like

the spiritual world.

The next source I found was a book, an encyclopedia actually. It talks about

why the spirit may possess a person and also discusses the types of demons. Spiritual

possession may occur through food, while others may enter through air or water.

Additional causes of possession include staring in mirrors for long periods of time. It

has also been said that if you talk in the bathroom a lot you might get possessed

because bathrooms are where demons live. Sometimes I think they are all just

superstitions and that if a demon really wants to invade a body, it will not wait for you

to look at yourself in the mirror, but rather it will just enter your body. The source

also discusses how there are types of demons, and some may be more evil than others.

i.e. causing more damage to the victim both physically and psychologically. So some

demons might be harder to extract out of the body than others. It would be really

unfortunate for someone to get possessed by a really evil demon.

Nancy Viola wrote a book full of stories about possession cases, and the

consequences the families had to bear. This book is divided into chapters, each

chapter telling the personal story of a person who has been a victim of possession. I

didn’t have time to read it all, but one of the stories I read inside this book really

touched me. It was about a boy who got possessed when he was 12 years old. This

entity entered Adam one day when he was playing alone in the park. He started

talking to himself as though he is talking to someone. His mother would look outside

the window to check on him and would find him just sitting there talking to himself.

When she confronted him he said that he had made a new friend called Anne. Adam

claimed that Anne was a little girl that lived in this house before they did. When he

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mother started to get disturbed by this she took Adam to see a therapist. The doctor

informed the mother that it was only natural he has an imaginary friend, and that a lot

of kids pass this stage. However, it got out of hand when one night his mother,

Teresa, woke up to a sound in the kitchen. As she entered she saw Adam standing in

the middle holding a knife in one hand, and a dead squirrel in the other. Teresa

confiscated the knife from Adam and grounded him after he said that Anne had asked

him to do so. Three nights later, Adam went to the tools cabinet at 3:00 A.M and

fetched a hammer. His next victim was his own mother whom he hit to death on the

head in her sleep. Adam was taken by the government authorities to be placed in a

hospital for a while and then perhaps into foster care. This isn’t really a case of

possession; however, it shows that possession is not the only way spirits have

managed to affect our world. I read a few more stories in Nancy’s book, but some of

them seemed a bit unreal. This was a limit to my research because these stories may

be biased or distorted.

“The Great Exorcism” is another very interesting book I located in the AUC

library. It basically talks about where the author, Arthur Crane, believes evil is

derived from. “The materialists answer would be that originally there was nothing,

except atoms of matter at a distance from each other absolutely still and absolutely

cold”. So before earth and the entire universe existed there was nothing more than

matter floating in space. The author then talks about how God created our world in

just a few days. Moreover, Crane discusses how we are not born good or bad people,

but rather we choose whether we are going to be good or bad. I really agree with that

because these traits are not inborn. Our actions speak for themselves and make us who

we are. Everybody has bad days and gets bad thoughts for a while, but that doesn’t

mean that he/she is a bad person. Throughout his book, he states several times how he

believes that evil is not inborn, and argues that some spirits are good, while others are

evil. He concludes his chapter by saying that only the evil spirits invade human

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minds, and not the pure ones. I guess that’s true because if a spirit is pure, why would

it possess someone, right?

Another book called “Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained”, explains

many unsolved mysteries to the world. It deals with philosophy being a major aspect

for its explanations. It uses theories made up by Aristotle to explain how the world

came to exist and how the human mind works. Then it argues about (from Aristotle’s

point of view) how it is we sometimes know things that we cannot remember where

we learnt it. Aristotle’s explanation to this is that our “soul” has lived far more than

our actual bodies have, and that is why we sometimes know things that we do not

remember learning; that is, our soul has lived it but our body has not. So basically, he

believes that our soul came to existence way before our body did; however, not many

theorists agree with that. Looking at the religious part of it, being a Muslim myself, I

thought it would be interesting to find out more about the Christian religion, so this

book called “Christianity” will help me do just that. It discusses the history of

Christianity and how it started. It also discusses how churches function and the

importance of priests and such. In detail, it explains the exorcism ritual according to

the Christian religion. Other than the major books, I read a few articles; however,

some of them had contradicting, yet interesting, ideas. Online articles like

“Possession” and “Demonic Possession” discuss prayers and chants being the

ultimate solution to expel evil spirits from an individual. This is very common and

can be carried out by anyone who is religious but not necessarily a priest/sheikh.

However the article “Exorcism” states that only an exorcism ritual will result in an

abolishment of the spirit, and nothing else works. It also states that an expert must be

the one to carry out this ritual. A priest must also have a license so he can be allowed

to perform the ritual on the victim. That is a good thing because some things are not

meant to be meddled with, and this is one of them. Some kids play with the Ouija

board, which is used to summon a spirit and ask it questions. The board consists of

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the alphabet and a wooden pointy structure that is used by the spirit to point towards

the letters. This is very dangerous and can result in many mishaps.

An article that would argue with the previous articles I have read is a scientific

related one by Michael O’Donnell. This article looks at the scientific aspect of

possession. So as expected, it does not agree with the exorcism ritual as a solution to a

person who claims to be possessed. “The infidel policy on the question is to deny the

possibility of possession in any circumstances, either on the supposition, that there are

no evil spirits in existence, or that they are powerless to influence the human body in

the manner described”. So it basically tries to disproof any evidence that the victim is

possessed, and tries to explain it from a medical point of view. Perhaps the victim is

schizophrenic or has hallucinations. It’s a drawback that possession and schizophrenia

have very similar symptoms because it makes it hard to diagnose the victim. It also

made me raise a question that perhaps an entity might possess a schizophrenic person,

so how would that be treated?

Another important source I came across was a journal by Robert Emmons

called “Personal strivings: An approach to personality and subjective well-being.”

This journal discusses the differences between our personalities. Why we are the way

we are, and what influences our actions and behaviors. Robert says that some traits

are inborn while others are learnt through our cognitive behavior. Robert claims that

society can be split into several categories, of which are the strong-minded and the

weak minded. The weak minded are those considered to be always alone, not very

friendly and emotionally unstable. On the other hand, there is the strong-minded

being, who is thought to be very outgoing and has many friends. According to

Robert’s journal, possession occurs mainly to the weak-minded people since they are

more vulnerable. I consider myself a strong-minded person, but that does not make

me evade the fact that I too might get possessed. Being strong-minded or weak

minded is not the only determinant of why this specific victim got possessed while the

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other sitting right next to him didn’t. Lastly, watching a few exorcisms on YouTube

gave me an idea of how they are performed since witnessing one was not really an

option.

As for primary research, I conducted two forms- interviews and a survey.

Starting with the interview, I asked people a couple of yes or no questions. I chose

very general questions for my questionnaire because my topic is a very broad topic.

Also, it is not one that the public is well informed about so should my questions have

been specific or detailed, people would not have been able to answer them. 38

subjects filled out my questionnaire, so that was a limit to my research. I also asked

my subjects to say what religion they are. Knowing their religion will enable me to

propose an explanation to their answers. My first question was “Do you believe in

spirits/demons?” 59% said yes while 41% said no they do not believe in spirits. The

result I got for this question I believe is based on how religious my audience was

because it’s the main detector of what you believe when it comes to spirits. Following

my first question I asked, “Do you believe in exorcisms?” 51.3% said that they do

believe in the exorcism ritual; however, 48.7% said no. I believe that the people that

said 41% that said they don’t believe in spirits would be the ones who answered no to

this question. I mean, if they don’t even believe in spirits how will they believe in the

ritual that deals with spirits? Thirdly, as a follow up to the people who answered yes

to my previous question the next question was: “Do you believe in exorcisms as a

solution to the possessed?” 48.7% said that they do believe it is a solution to

possession whereas the other 51.3% said they do not. I was surprised that the majority

of the answers to this question were a no. If a lot of people believe in the ritual why

would so many people still think it is not a solution? Perhaps because they do not

perceive it as a solution, or that it doesn’t work. Again, the result of the ritual depends

on the case itself. For example, the priest may not be that good. Also, it might be a

very hard case, as the victim may be possessed by several demons. My next question

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was “Have you ever witnessed an exorcism? If so, please state shortly what you

experienced ” responses to this question included: “No. It would be interesting to

witness an exorcism though” and “No, but I know there are demons because it's stated

in the koraan”. This was interesting because on of the subjects that answered this

question said its because its mentioned in the Qur’an, which proves my point in the

important role of religion and culture in our beliefs. I then asked my subjects if they

personally knew anyone who is/has been possessed, and most responses were a no.

The next question consisted of asking my audience whether they believe that all

spirits are evil. Surprisingly, 81% said no, leaving the other 18% in belief that are

spirits are evil. It is good that people believe that some spirits are pure, because

according to Harrap Chambers, only the evil spirits possess human minds. Now the

concept of dealing with a possessed person falls into two main categories: the first

being that the subject is treated through the exorcism ritual, which is what mainly

religious people believe. The second is through the use of chemotherapy, which is

what scientific thinking people would go for. Having gotten the previous piece of

information from my secondary research, I decided to integrate it into my primary

research as well, and thus, this helped me choose my next question: “Do you believe

in chemotherapy as a solution to the possessed?” As predicted, 84.2% responded no

and 15.8% responded by yes. Most religious people would answer no to the previous

question, and since our culture is based on religion it makes sense that most people

said no to the previous question. As stated previously in my paper, personality traits

have proven to be a determining factor of whether or not you are more likely to be

possessed, so my next question was: “Do you think personality traits will have an

effect on whether or not you are more likely to be possessed?” 55.3% of those who

answered said yes, and 44.7% said no. This coincides with my secondary research,

because Robert Emmons journal talks about how strong-minded people are less likely

to be possessed. An interesting piece of information I came across while reading

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Nancy Caciola’s book was that she stated that possession occurs more in women than

in men, so this influenced my decision on what the next question will be. The 10th and

last question in my survey was: “Do you believe women or men are more likely to be

possessed?” 60% answered women and 40% answered men. I was glad to see that

almost all of the information I gathered from my primary research coincided with my

secondary data, so I knew my search was accurate. The questions I chose were mostly

based on what I wanted to further investigate from my secondary research so I

integrated it into my primary search.

As for my interview, I had a thought of interviewing two subjects. The first being

a priest followed by a sheikh. I visited 4 churches; however, none of the priests at

these churches had the time as they were busy and their time is of the essence. I was

surprised to see that none of the churches would let me in to talk to a priest. The first

church I went to, the security guard would not let me in because the priest was busy,

even though I told him I would not take more than five minutes of his time. The

second church was like a five-minute walk from the one I had just went to. Everyone

was entering very normally; however, when I went it the security man stopped me at

the door. After telling him what my purpose for entering was, he also denied my

access. It also happened with the third and fourth churches I attempted to enter. I do

not know why this happened, but I gathered that perhaps since President Morsi

became Egypt’s new leader, there have been suspicions going on between the

Muslims and Christians in the country. Considering the state the country is in, it only

makes sense that the security guard would not let me in. I visit churches regularly

abroad. However, I am a student, and I showed him my university identification. It is

not fair that none of them would let me in.

I visited a mosque in Korba, and the sheikh there had some free time so he let me

in to interview him. I was surprised at the difference between how the churchmen

treated me, and the doorman at the mosque who let me in straight away. After having

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taken his permission to film him I asked him my very first question: “ According to

Islam, do spirits exist? And if so, is it true that they possess humans?” Sheikh

Mohammed’s response was that they do in fact exist and it has been stated in several

sections of the holy book of Islam (Qur’an). He then tells me a short story about how

Prophet Muhammad himself was possessed for 6 months until angels of god were sent

to him and released him off the spirit that was inside him. I never knew that our own

prophet was possessed! It was the most interesting information I found out. He was

possessed by an enemy to Prophet Muhammad called Ladud Ibn Al-Assam. My

second question was: “How do you detect if a victim is possessed? And if he is, how

do you make the spirit exit the body?” The sheikh’s answer was that a test is first

carried out to detect if the victim is possessed or not. It starts by saying “Bism Illah Al

Rahman Al Rahim” which means in the name of Allah the merciful, the

compassionate, and the victim is asked to repeat this quote. Then the sheikh starts to

read sections of the holy Qur’an, and if the victim starts to feel high discomfort then

he/she is likely to be possessed and the ritual is carried on. As the Sheikh continues to

read Qur’an, the demon inside suffers until he chooses to exit the body through one of

the victim’s limbs. Once the sheikh feels that the demon wants to get out, which he

detects because the limb he wishes to exit from starts to move slightly, he gets any

small object like a stick and waves it slowly from the head of the victim all the way to

the limb that the demon has chosen to exit from. I asked the sheikh some additional

side questions like if he has ever done an exorcism and he said that he has several

times. He also told me that most of his cases were women, which agrees with my

questionnaire answers and with my secondary data.

Demonic possession, according to several religions, does exist and has several

cures. Each religion has a different explanation, and a completely different ritual;

however, they do have common ground. Both religions carry out tests to see if the

person is possessed and holy books are the main tools used to force the demon out of

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the body. The ritual is also not very different because they are both going for the same

result. Gathering all this information would have been impossible without starting at

the AUC library. It was my main source of information for everything and it is what

triggered all the questions I went asking in my field research. Doing the primary

research was the most interesting part for me, especially when I compared my first

hand data with the data I had collected from reading several books and articles. I was

assured that my data was accurate because everything I found out through my

questionnaire and my interviews agreed with the information I extracted out of books

and articles online. A major determinant of our beliefs comes from what culture we

are born into, and what religious background we are raised upon. On the other hand,

science argues otherwise because to scientifically prove anything you need numbers

and figures, and well, spirits cant provide that. Whether you choose to believe in them

or not mainly goes back to how religious you are. But if I were you I’d watch out;

some spirit might want to prove his existence to you someday!

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Works Cited

AsiaOne. "Different Religions Take Various Approaches to Exorcism."

Http://www.asiaone.com. The Straits Times, 1 Nov. 2007. Web. 13 June 2012.

<http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Story/A1Story20071101-

33587.html>.

Caciola, Nancy. "Exorcism." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd

ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 2927-2938. Gale Virtual

Reference Library. Web. 11 June 2012.

Carroll, Robert. "anecdotal (testimonial) evidence." The Skeptic's Dictionary. 23 Feb

2009. Web. 14 June 2012.

Christianity." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/115240/Christianity>.

Crane, Arthur. The Great Exorcism. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Arthur Crane, 1915.

“Demons." Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. London: Chambers Harrap,

2007. Credo Reference. Web. 13 June 2012.

“Exorcism." Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. London: Chambers Harrap,


"electronic voice phenomenon (EVP)." The Skeptic's Dictionary. 23 Feb 2009. Web.

14 June 2012.

“Exorcism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic

Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/198273/exorcism>.

O'Donnell, Michael. "Demonical Possession." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12.

Abo Laban 20

New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 17 Jun. 2012

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12315a.htm

“Personal strivings: An approach to personality and subjective well-being.”

Emmons,

Robert . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 51(5), Nov 1986, 1058-

1068. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.51.5.1058

Pfeifer, S. (1994), Belief in demons and exorcism in psychiatric patients in

Switzerland. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 67: 247–258.

doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1994.tb01794.x

“Possession." Possession. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911. Web. 18 June 2012.

<http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Possession>.

Randi, James. "spirit photography." An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and

Hoaxes

of the Occult and Supernatural. 2007. James Randi Education Foundation. Web. 14

June 2012.

Viola, Nancy. "Exorcisms." Encyclopedia of Religious rituals. Ed. Lindsay Jones.

2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 2927-2938. Gale Virtual


YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsiVN8y85DY

Abo Laban 21

Annotated Bibliography




33587.html>.

AsiaOne is an online portal for news from Singapore. As I read through this

source, it seemed somewhat biased towards the end. However the information

provided was more than helpful. It speaks firstly about the movie “The

Exorcist” and explains some climax sections in the movie. For example, when

they performed the ritual on the possessed girl. It then uses the movie to relate

to real life situations. “According to the Catholic theologian at the St Francis

Xavier Major Seminary, the act of exorcism does indeed involve reciting

prayers and commanding the invading spirit to leave its host. And the

possessed can demonstrate unnatural strength and power”. So although it’s

fake, the practice in movies shows us an illustration of the real thing.




This is a very long source that is filled with useful information. “These evil spirits

penetrate into the bodies of their victims and completely control, or at least

strongly influence, their actions. Possessing spirits may also cause physical illness

by interfering with the body's normal physiological processes or mental illness by

affecting the will, intellect, and emotions”. This quote that I took from the source

explains the behaviors exposed by the victim. They are signs that he/she might be

possessed. Also, another useful piece of information I derived from this source

that I did not see discussed in any other source was about gender aspect of the

issue. “Spirit possession afflicts women more often than men. This pattern has

been the subject of much discussion among specialists who study the

phenomenon”.

Abo Laban 22




Since I’m a Muslim, I thought it would be interesting to learn more about the

Christian religion; and this source helped me do just that. It explains the Christian

religion; however, in a very broad way. It discusses the history of Christianity and

how it started. It also discusses how churches function and the importance of

priests and such. In detail, it explains the exorcism ritual according to the

Christian religion.


This is a very unusual book I came across. It discusses where the author, Arthur

Crane, thinks evil derived from. “The materialists answer would be that originally

there was nothing, except atoms of matter at a distance from each other absolutely

still and absolutely cold”. He then talks about how God created our divine world in

just a matter of days. Moreover, he mentions the existence of good & evil, and how

we choose to be either good or bad people. He believes that evilness is not inborn, and

argues that some spirits are good, while others are evil. Only the evil spirits who

choose to follow the dark path and invade human minds.



This book, by Harrap Chambers, explains many unsolved mysteries to the world.

It talks about issues such as ghosts, spirits, demons and such. It explains why they

came to existence. Also, this book refers to several relatable issues to my topic

such as certain religious beliefs. Some religions do not believe in the existence of

evil spirits. It also explains methods used to contact the dead. Reading this book

will give me more ideas and better-developed arguments to use in my I-search

paper.

Abo Laban 23

“Exorcism." Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. London: Chambers

Harrap, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 11 June 2012.

This is an article found using the American University in Cairo (AUC) library

database. It discusses the expelling of “evil spirits” from a victim through

prayers and chants. The practice first started by the ancients, but it got taken

over by the Christian Church. The ritual is carefully monitored and the priests

must have a license to perform the ritual. This theory of exorcism, which

involves expelling evil forces from the human body, has been used in several

movies such as “The Exorcist” and “The Exorcism Of Emily Rose”.

“Exorcism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online



This source is stating basically, in detail, what the exorcism ritual is about. So

it starts by calling out to the demon, in the name of Jesus, and attempts to

force them to leave a person or an object. The ceremony is common amongst

several religions like the Jewish and Christian religions; however, they each

have different ways of executing it. It is used to demolish any spiritual

invasion. In Christianity, Jesus would drive the demon out of the human body

by ordering him to exit using God’s name. Many of his followers did so in his

name.



<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12315a.htm>

This is an online source I found. It looks at the scientific aspect of exorcism.

Of course, as expected, science does not agree with the ritual as a solution to a

person who claims to be possessed. “The infidel policy on the question is to

deny the possibility of possession in any circumstances, either on the

supposition, that there are no evil spirits in existence, or that they are

powerless to influence the human body in the manner described”. Since im

Abo Laban 24

exploring the influence of religion on the matter, it is vital that I explore all the

possible causes of possession.


Emmons, Robert . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 51(5), Nov 1986, 1058-1068. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.51.5.1058 This book examines the differences between personalities and how this affects

whether you’re more likely to be possessed or not. I’ve already looked at a

source that discusses how gender affects the matter. According to studies

carried out by experts, I found out that most possession cases were females. So

this source will help me know the different characteristics that make an impact

on why you may get possessed. In this book, Robert explains how you grow

up also may make you more prone to possession by a demon. A child that is

always alone and not very exposed to a social life is more likely to come to

contact with the spiritual world.



doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1994.tb01794.x

This source talks about the use of prayers as the solution to expel an evil spirit

from remaining inside a person. “Belief in demons as the cause of mental

health problems is a well-known phenomenon in many cultures of the world”.

It also shows in the previous sentence how it agrees with the existence of the

demons in the first place, unlike some other sources I found that argue their

existence in the first place.



This very helpful source discusses types of possession. Demonic possession can

occur in many ways. Some demons enter through food, while others enter through

water or air. Their types include inspirational possession, demonic possession, and

psychological possession. The source also discusses different forms of demons

and how some are worse than others.

Abo Laban 25


2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 2927-2938. Gale

Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 June 2012.

This source tells the personal stories and experiences of people that have

either witnessed an exorcism or been possessed. This will help me compare

my survey and interview results with what people worldwide have

experienced. Also, these personal stories will be interesting to share in my

paper and will enhance its credibility.


This is a video I watched of an exorcism being performed on a Malaysian

possessed girl. The demon’s name is “Idrus” and the Sheikh expels him by

making the demon join the Islamic religion and thus, he has to follow the

Islamic religion’s rules, which includes that he is not allowed to ever possess

anyone.

Questionnaire: Appendix A

1. Do you believe in evil spirits/demons? Yes/No

2. Do you believe in exorcisms? Yes/No

3. Do you believe in the exorcism ritual as a solution to the possessed?

Yes/No

4. Have you ever witnessed an exorcism? If so, please state shortly what you

experienced. Yes/No

5. Do you know someone who has ever been possessed? Yes/No

6. Do you think all spirits are evil? Yes/No

7. Do you believe in chemotherapy as a solution to whoever claims to be

possessed? Yes/No

Abo Laban 26

8. Do you think personality traits will have an effect on whether or not you

are more likely to be possessed? Yes/No

9. Are you afraid of spirits? Yes/No

10. Do you believe men or women are more likely to be possessed? Yes/No

Interview questions:

1. According to Islam, do spirits exist? And if so, is it true that they possess

humans?

2. How do you detect if a victim is possessed? And if he is, how do you make the

spirit exit the body?

Abo Laban 27

Nadine Abo Laban

Rhet 201 section 8

Dr. Gibson

I-search paper (draft 1)






have been mentioned in such as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth, Mar

Twain’s “A Ghost Story”, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and much more.

Being a part of literally work is not the only way “ghosts/spirits” came about, for they

have also been part of movies such as Topper, The Sixth Sense, The Others,

American Haunting, and Paranormal Activity (parts 1,2 & 3). They have quite had

their share of fame, but what makes us think they do exist? There is no doubt about

the fact that ghosts have been reported throughout history. The virtual appearance of

ghosts we see on television is very widespread considering the entities may not

actually exist. What about the people who do believe in ghosts? Where do they get

their belief? Although men and women who have come to believe in the existence of

spirits offer evidence such as photographs, eye-witness reports, electronic voice

phenomena, sudden increases in electromagnetic radiation, and sudden temperature

drops, one must also consider that this evidence can be explained without reference to

the presence of entities that are supposed to have caused such un-natural conditions.

Abo Laban 28

This makes the actual existence of spiritual entities questionable at its best. Coming to

the evidence part of the story, you can see how easily you can put down any evidence

presented to prove the existence of such spirits. Since the beginning of time, several

people have claimed to have personally seen ghosts. It does seem probable that these

people really are in belief that they saw a ghost or a spirit; however, this is not




are impossible to test for accuracy. As for photographs, it is said that cameras to not

lie; however, it is just as easy to capture a picture as it is to fake it. In an Internet

article by James Randi, an example is given about how some spiritualists tried to fool

people into believing that they captured images of the deceased author, Sir Conan

Doyle, who supposedly became a spirit roaming the earth after his death in 1930. So

far we’ve established the faults in photography and eyewitness testimony about being

proof of the existence of spirits, but what about the electronic voice phenomena

(EVP)? It is a sophisticated terms that is used for voices that have been recorded on

tape. EVP’s demonstrate the presence of spirits by recording any low or high pitch

abnormal sounds in the surrounding. However, even those can be misleading as

Carroll’s source states in his Internet article “Electric Voice Phenomenon”. Some

people are said to have faked the voices recorded in the tapes through the use of

equalizers and such. In the same article, the author cites an explanation as why we

may think we heard noises and voices of spirits in the recordings. A psychologist

named Jim Alcock said: “when our brains try to find patterns, they are guided in part

by what we expect to hear…people can clearly ‘hear’ voices and words not just in the

context of muddled voices, but in a pattern of white noise in which there are no words

at all”. So it seems like EVP’s are as useless as photographs and eyewitness

testimonies have proven to be. Yet another piece of evidence provided by believers of

Abo Laban 29

spirits is abrupt drop in temperatures. Now, some ghost hunters have actually felt and

recorded these sudden temperature drops, but are they really caused by ghosts? It is

believed that these cold spots result from the presence of a spirit who sucks out the

heat/electricity from its surrounding so he can use it to produce sound. Supposedly,

the energy that they draw from the environment makes their own energy stronger, but

that energy is lost once the spirit uses to it speak or to make a noticeable sound.

However, once again Carroll finds such evidence to not be persuasive. In an online

article he wrote he says: “many people report physical changes in haunted places,

especially a feeling of a presence accompanied by temperature drop and hearing

unaccountable sounds”. He also agrees that these people are not imagining things, it

just that ghosts aren’t the reasons behind these strange happenings. Alas, the counter

argument- what evidence is there that they DO exist? Is it empirical? Or does faith

play a huge role in this area? This is a short story about what one particular psychic

went through before deciding to chase after spirits for a living. Joy Star was a student

attending a psychic development class. This class taught them to mediate and to let

their mind roam free and eventually their “spirit guide” would come to them and

guide them in the right direction. The student would then write down on paper any

information that crosses his mind whatsoever. After a couple of months of practice,

Joy noticed his notes (whatever he supposedly received from his spirit guide) were

freakishly accurate, so he decided to continue his practice outside of class as well.

One day, while meditating, Joy calls out to his telepathic teacher: “Who are you? And

what’s your name?” All of a sudden, a figure appears in front of him as though he

were real. He wore a wide headband across his forehead, and his body was dressed in

what appeared to be a skirt and a tunic. Immediately, Star’s question was answered

and he wrote down the answer that came to his mind on a piece of paper as usual.

After this vision he looked down on the piece of parchment in his hand and it read

“IAD”. Having gotten a bit frightened after this experience, Joy decided to visit his

Abo Laban 30

teacher, who is originally a psychic. The teacher silently sits there and draws a figure

on a blank piece of paper. After finishing the drawing, the teacher flips the paper and

shows Joy the sketch. With an astonished face, he examines the drawing which

appears to look exactly like the figure from his vision. From that day onward, Joy Star

decided to become a psychic and donate the remaining time of his life helping people

find their “Spirit Guide”. So basically, the belief in spirits comes mostly from faith.

But are all spirits good and pure? Psychics themselves have stated the existence of

evil entities that cause corruption in our world. Spiritual possession is a common

thing worldwide, and has many treatments. Of those treatments is the exorcism ritual,

which is the process of expelling evil entities from a person by making the spirit

swear an oath or by commanding the spirit to leave using the name of a higher power.

So how do different Religions view the exorcism ritual? And what are the

contradicting views of science and religion on exorcism and the concept of

possession?




enhanced my knowledge about the topic. My first source was an online portal for

news that originates from Singapore, and its called AsiaOne. This source speaks about

the movie “The Exorcist” and then relates it to real life situations. Another similar

source to AsiaOne I came across was an article by Harrap Chambers, which talks

about the ritual itself and how some movies illustrate how its carried out. Next is an

online article, which explains in detail how the ritual is carried out by several

religions as it the methods used to expel the demon differs from religion to religion.

Another source closely related to the previous one is a book published in 1994 by an

author named Pfeiffer. The book discusses the use of prayers as one of the methods

used during an exorcism, and states that it has proved to be the most effective. The

Abo Laban 31

next source I found was a book, an encyclopedia actually. It talks about why the spirit

may possess a person and also discusses the types of demons. It also discusses the

types of demons and possessions just like my next source, which is another book

about exorcisms written by Nancy Viola. Another very interesting source I found is a

book called “The Great Exorcism”. It basically talks about where the author, Arthur

Crane, believes evil is derived from. Since I’m a Muslim, I thought it would be

interesting to find out more about the Christian religion, so this book called

“Christianity” will help me do just that. Other than the major books, online articles

like “Exorcism” and “Demonic Possession” increased the credibility of my

information. Lastly, watching a few exorcisms on YouTube gave me an idea of how

they are performed.


Starting with the interview, I asked people a couple of yes or no questions. Below is a

sample of my survey.




Yes/No


experienced. Yes/No




possessed? Yes/No





Abo Laban 32

Works Cited




33587.html>.





Academic












New

York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 17 Jun. 2012


Abo Laban 33



doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1994.tb01794.x







“Personal strivings: An approach to personality and subjective well-being.” Emmons,

Robert . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 51(5), Nov 1986,

1058-1068. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.51.5.1058


2009. Web. 14 June 2012.


14 June 2012.

Randi, James. "spirit photography." An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes

of the Occult and Supernatural. 2007. James Randi Education Foundation.

Web. 14 June 2012.

Abo Laban 34





33587.html>.
























phenomenon”.

Abo Laban 35


Academic








Christian religion.


















paper.

Abo Laban 36


Harrap,


This is a book I found using the American University in Cairo (AUC) library








Academic










name.


New

York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 17 Jun. 2012






Abo Laban 37






Switzerland.

British Journal of Medical Psychology, 67: 247–258. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-

8341.1994.tb01794.x









This very helpful source discusses types of possession. Demonic possession

can occur in many ways. Some demons enter through food, while others enter

through water or air. Their types include inspirational possession, demonic

possession, and psychological possession. The source also discusses different

forms of demons and how some are worse than others.









Abo Laban 38


This is a video I watched of an exorcism being performed on a Malaysian possessed

girl. The demon’s name is “Idrus” and the Sheikh expels him by making the demon

join the Islamic religion and thus, he has to follow the Islamic religion’s rules, which

includes that he is not allowed to ever possess anyone.


Robert . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 51(5), Nov 1986, 1058-1068. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.51.5.1058 This book examines the differences between personalities and how this affects









Abo Laban 39

Nadine Abo Laban

Rhet 201 section 8

Dr. Gibson







have been mentioned in such as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth, Mar

Twain’s “A Ghost Story”, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, and much more.

Being a part of literally work is not the only way ghosts/spirits came about, for they

have also been part of movies such as Topper, The Others, The Sixth Sense, and

Paranormal Activity (parts 1,2 & 3). They have quite had their share of fame, but

what makes us think they do exist? There is no doubt about the fact that ghosts have

been reported throughout history. The virtual appearance of ghosts we see on

television is very widespread considering the entities may not actually exist. What

about the people who do believe in ghosts? Where do they get their belief? Even the

people who have come to believe that spirits actually exist offer evidence such as

photographs, eyewitness reports, electronic voice phenomena, sudden increases in

electromagnetic radiation, and sudden temperature drops. One must also consider that

this evidence can be explained without the presence of entities being the solution

they come up with. This, in result, makes the existence of spiritual entities

questionable at its best. Coming to the evidence part of the story, you can see how

easily you can put down any evidence presented to prove the existence of such spirits.

Years ago, several people claimed to have personally witnessed ghosts. It does seem

Abo Laban 40

probable that these people really are in belief that they saw a ghost or a spirit;

however, this is not scientifically acceptable. You see, these stories go through bias

and exaggeration and other processes that twist and distort the truth, and thus, the

result is a whole new different story. That is why scientists disregard any eyewitness

evidence since they are impossible to test for accuracy. As for photographs, it is said

that cameras do not lie; however, it is just as easy to capture a picture, as it is to fake

it. In an Internet article by James Randi, an example is given about how some

spiritualists tried to trick people into believing that they have captured images of the

deceased author, Sir Conan Doyle, who supposedly became a spirit roaming the earth

after his death in 1930. So far we’ve established the faults in photography and

eyewitness testimony about being proof of the existence of spirits, but what about the

electronic voice phenomena (EVP)? It is a sophisticated term that is used for voices

that have been recorded on tape. EVP’s demonstrate the presence of spirits by

recording any low or high pitch abnormal sounds in the surrounding. However, even

those can be misleading as Carroll’s source states in his Internet article “Electric

Voice Phenomenon”. Some people are said to have faked the voices recorded in the

tapes through the use of equalizers and such. In the same article, the author cites an

explanation as why we may think we heard noises and voices of spirits in the




noise in which there are no words at all”. So it has become obvious that EVP’s are as

useless as photographs and eyewitness testimonies have proven to be. Yet another

piece of evidence provided by believers of spirits is abrupt drop in temperatures.

Now, some sprit hunters have actually recorded, and even felt, this sudden

temperature drop, but are they really caused by ghosts? It is said that these cold areas

result from the presence of a spirit who sucks out the heat/electricity from its

Abo Laban 41

surrounding so he can use it to produce sound. The energy the spirit draws from its

surroundings supposedly makes their own energy stronger, but that energy is lost once

the spirit uses to it speak or to make a noticeable sound. However, Carroll finds such

evidence to not be logical. In an online article he wrote he says: “many people report

physical changes in haunted places, especially a feeling of a presence accompanied by

temperature drop and hearing unaccountable sounds”. He also suggests that these

people are not imagining things, it just that ghosts aren’t the reasons behind these

strange happenings. Alas, the counter argument- what evidence is there that they DO

exist? Since science does not play a part does that make faith play a huge role? This is

a short story about what one particular psychic went through before deciding to chase

after spirits for a living. Joy Star was a student attending a psychic development class.

This class taught them to mediate and to let their mind roam free and eventually their

“spirit guide” would come to them and guide them in the right direction. The students

would then write down on paper any information that crosses their minds whatsoever.

After a couple of months of practice, Joy noticed his notes (whatever he supposedly

received from his spirit guide) were freakishly accurate, so he decided to continue his

practice outside of class as well. One day, while meditating, Joy calls out to his

telepathic teacher: “Who are you? And what’s your name?” All of a sudden, a figure

appears in front of him as though he were real. He wore a wide headband across his

forehead, and his body was dressed in what appeared to be a skirt and a tunic.

Immediately, Star’s question was answered and he wrote down the answer that came

to his mind on a piece of paper as usual. After this vision he looked down on the piece

of parchment in his hand and it read “IAD”. Having gotten a bit frightened after this

experience, Joy decided to visit his teacher, who is originally a psychic. The teacher

silently sits there and draws a figure on a blank piece of paper. After finishing the

drawing, the teacher flips the paper and shows Joy the sketch. With an astonished

face, he examines the drawing that appeared to look exactly like the figure from his

Abo Laban 42

vision. From that day onward, Joy Star decided to become a psychic and donate the

remaining time of his life helping people find their “Spirit Guide”. Since,

brainwashing or misleading by the teacher may have occurred, for the students to still

believe that they are seeing their “spirit guides” must mean that the belief in spirits

comes mostly from faith because the teacher provided no evidence of their existence.

But are all spirits good and pure? Psychics themselves have stated the existence of

evil entities that cause corruption in our world, spiritual possession being a very

common example of that. However, demonic possession has many treatments. Of

those treatments is the exorcism ritual, which is the process of expelling evil entities

from a person by making the spirit swear an oath or by commanding the spirit to leave

using the name of a higher power. So how do different Religions view the exorcism

ritual? And what are the contradicting views of science and religion on exorcism and

the concept of possession?




enhanced my knowledge about the topic. The first source I encountered was an online

portal for news that originates from Singapore, and its called AsiaOne. This source

speaks about the movie “The Exorcist” and then relates it to real life situations. The

movie is about a girl, Emily, who got possessed, and this is where a major conflict

aroused between her parents. The father believed that she is possessed and wanted to

seek the help of a priest, whereas the mother was in belief that her daughter is

schizophrenic and smothered her daughter with pills to treat her. The result was that

the girl passed away, leaving both guardians in utter remorse over their forgone

daughter. This is very relatable to real life situations as conflict always arises in such

situations when the guardians do not perceive the exorcism ritual as the only solution.

Another similar source to AsiaOne I came across was an article by Harrap Chambers,

Abo Laban 43

which talks about the ritual itself and how some movies, such as The Exorcist,

illustrate how it’s carried out since witnessing an actual ritual may endanger the

person’s life. Another very interesting article I read was called “Exorcism”, written by

Nancy Caciola. A very interesting part I found in it was “These evil spirits penetrate





demonically possessed person may show. This article was very helpful also because it



subject of much discussion among specialists who study the phenomenon”. Next is an


religions as it the methods used to expel the demon differs from religion to religion. It

starts out by the priest calling out to the demon to show himself, or to make any signs

of proof that he is inside the person. Usually responses are movement of furniture or

levitation of the victim’s body or none at all. He then starts reading specific parts of

the Bible or Qur’an (depending on the religion), and demands the spirit to exit the

body. If the demon refuses to leave different methods are tried out and sometimes the

ritual is paused so the body can rest. So if the ritual doesn’t work, Pfeiffer’s book has

the answer to that. The book discusses the use of prayers as one of the methods used

during an exorcism, and states that it has proved to be the most effective. “Belief in

demons as the cause of mental health problems is a well-known phenomenon in many

cultures of the world”. The previous sentence is a quote from his book, which shows

that he had no doubts in their existence. The next source I found was a book, an

encyclopedia actually. It talks about why the spirit may possess a person and also

discusses the types of demons. Spiritual possession may occur through food, while

Abo Laban 44

others may enter through air or water. The source also discusses how there are types

of demons, and some may be more evil than others. i.e. causing more damage to the

victim both physically and psychologically. It also discusses the types of demons and

possessions just like my next source, which is another book about exorcisms written

by Nancy Viola. This book is divided into chapters, each chapter telling the personal

story of a person who has been a victim of possession. Another very interesting

source I found is a book called “The Great Exorcism”. It basically talks about where

the author, Arthur Crane, believes evil is derived from. “The materialists answer

would be that originally there was nothing, except atoms of matter at a distance from

each other absolutely still and absolutely cold”. The author then talks about how God

created our world in just a few days. Moreover, Crane discusses how we are not born

good or bad people, but rather we choose whether we are going to be good or bad.

Throughout his book, he states several times how he believes that evil is not inborn,

and argues that some spirits are good, while others are evil. He concludes his chapter

by saying that only the evil spirits invade human minds, and not the pure ones.

Another book called “Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained”, explains many

unsolved mysteries to the world. It deals with philosophy being a major aspect for its

explanations. It uses theories made up by Aristotle to explain how the world came to

exist and how the human mind works. Then it argues about (from Aristotle’s point of

view) how it is we sometimes know things that we cannot remember where we learnt

it. Aristotle’s explanation to this is that our “soul” has lived far more than our actual

bodies have, and that is why we sometimes know things that we do not remember

learning; that is, our soul has lived it but our body has not. So basically, he believes

that our soul came to existence way before our body did; however, not many theorists

agree with that. Looking at the religious part of it, being a Muslim myself, I thought it

would be interesting to find out more about the Christian religion, so this book called

“Christianity” will help me do just that. It discusses the history of Christianity and

Abo Laban 45

how it started. It also discusses how churches function and the importance of priests

and such. In detail, it explains the exorcism ritual according to the Christian religion.

Other than the major books, I read a few articles; however, some of them had

contradicting, yet interesting, ideas. Online articles like “Possession” and “Demonic

Possession” discuss prayers and chants being the ultimate solution to expel evil spirits

from an individual. This is very common and can be carried out by anyone who is

religious but not necessarily a priest/sheikh. However the article “Exorcism” states

that only an exorcism ritual will result in an abolishment of the spirit, and nothing else

works. It also states that an expert must be the one to carry out this ritual. A priest

must also have a license so he can be allowed to perform the ritual on the victim. A

third article that would argue with the previous two is a scientific related one by

Michael O’Donnell. This article looks at the scientific aspect of possession. So as

expected, it does not agree with the exorcism ritual as a solution to a person who

claims to be possessed. “The infidel policy on the question is to deny the possibility

of possession in any circumstances, either on the supposition, that there are no evil

spirits in existence, or that they are powerless to influence the human body in the

manner described”. So it basically tries to disproof any evidence that the victim is

possessed, and tries to explain it from a medical point of view. Lastly, watching a few

exorcisms on YouTube gave me an idea of how they are performed.


Starting with the interview, I asked people a couple of yes or no questions. Below is a

sample of my survey.




Yes/No


experienced. Yes/No

Abo Laban 46




possessed? Yes/No





Abo Laban 47

Works Cited




33587.html>.




















doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1994.tb01794.x

Abo Laban 48









1058-1068. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.51.5.1058


2009. Web. 14 June 2012.


14 June 2012.



Web. 14 June 2012.

Abo Laban 49





33587.html>.
























phenomenon”.


Abo Laban 50








Christian religion.


















paper.



Abo Laban 51


















name.












Abo Laban 52



doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1994.tb01794.x









This very helpful source discusses types of possession. Demonic possession

can occur in many ways. Some demons enter through food, while others enter

through water or air. Their types include inspirational possession, demonic

possession, and psychological possession. The source also discusses different

forms of demons and how some are worse than others.










This is a video I watched of an exorcism being performed on a Malaysian possessed

girl. The demon’s name is “Idrus” and the Sheikh expels him by making the demon

join the Islamic religion and thus, he has to follow the Islamic religion’s rules, which

includes that he is not allowed to ever possess anyone.

Abo Laban 53


Emmons, Robert . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 51(5), Nov 1986, 1058-1068. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.51.5.1058 This book examines the differences between personalities and how this affects









Abo Laban 54

Nadine Abo Laban

Rhet 201 section 8

Dr. Gibson


10th July 2012






have been mentioned in such as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth, Mark

Twain’s “A Ghost Story”, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, and much more.

Being a part of literally work is not the only way ghosts/spirits came about, for they

have also been part of movies such as Topper, The Others, The Sixth Sense, and

Paranormal Activity (parts 1,2 & 3). They have quite had their share of fame, but

what makes us think they do exist? There is no doubt about the fact that ghosts have

been reported throughout history. The virtual appearance of ghosts we see on

television is very widespread considering the entities may not actually exist. What

about the people who do believe in ghosts? Where do they get their belief? Even the

people who have come to believe that spirits actually exist offer evidence such as

photographs, eyewitness reports, electronic voice phenomena, sudden increases in

electromagnetic radiation, and sudden temperature drops. One must also consider that

this evidence can be explained without the presence of entities being the solution

they come up with. This, as a result, makes the existence of spiritual entities

questionable at its best.

Abo Laban 55

Coming to the evidence part of the story, you can see how easily you can put

down any evidence presented to prove the existence of such spirits. Years ago, several

people claimed to have personally witnessed ghosts. It does seem probable that these

people really are in belief that they saw a ghost or a spirit; however, this is not




are impossible to test for accuracy. As for photographs, it is said that cameras do not

lie; however, it is just as easy to capture a picture, as it is to fake it. In an Internet

article by James Randi, an example is given about how some spiritualists tried to trick

people into believing that they have captured images of the deceased author, Sir

Conan Doyle, who supposedly became a spirit roaming the earth after his death in

1930. So far we’ve established the faults in photography and eyewitness testimony

about being proof of the existence of spirits, but what about the electronic voice

phenomena (EVP)? It is a sophisticated term that is used for voices that have been

recorded on tape. EVP’s demonstrate the presence of spirits by recording any low or

high pitch abnormal sounds in the surrounding. However, even those can be

misleading as Carroll’s source states in his Internet article “Electric Voice

Phenomenon”. Some people are said to have faked the voices recorded in the tapes

through the use of equalizers and such. In the same article, the author cites an

explanation as why we may think we heard noises and voices of spirits in the




noise in which there are no words at all”. So it has become obvious that EVP’s are as

useless as photographs and eyewitness testimonies have proven to be.

Abo Laban 56

Yet another piece of evidence provided by believers of spirits is abrupt drop in

temperatures. Now, some sprit hunters have actually recorded, and even felt, this

sudden temperature drop, but are they really caused by ghosts? It is said that these

cold areas result from the presence of a spirit who sucks out the heat/electricity from

its surrounding so he can use it to produce sound. The energy the spirit draws from its

surroundings supposedly makes their own energy stronger, but once the spirit makes a

noticeable sound, that energy is lost. However, Carroll finds such evidence to not be

logical. In an online article he wrote he says: “many people report physical changes in

haunted places, especially a feeling of a presence accompanied by temperature drop

and hearing unaccountable sounds”. He also suggests that these people are not

imagining things, it just that ghosts aren’t the reasons behind these strange

happenings. Alas, the counter argument- what evidence is there that they DO exist?

Since science does not play a part does that make faith play a huge role?

Perhaps if you experience something unusual yourself you might change your

beliefs. For example, seeing a ghost with your own eyes, or getting possessed by one.

This is a short story about what one particular person went through before deciding to

become a psychic and chase after spirits for a living. Joy Star was a student attending

a psychic development class. This class taught them to mediate and to let their mind

roam free and eventually their “spirit guide” would come to them and guide them in

the right direction. The students would then write down on paper any information that

crosses their minds whatsoever. After a couple of months of practice, Joy noticed his

notes (whatever he supposedly received from his spirit guide) were freakishly

accurate, so he decided to continue his practice outside of class as well. One day,

while meditating, Joy calls out to his telepathic teacher: “Who are you? And what’s

your name?” All of a sudden, a figure appears in front of him as though he were real.

He wore a wide headband across his forehead, and his body was dressed in what

appeared to be a skirt and a tunic. Immediately, Star’s question was answered and he

Abo Laban 57

wrote down the answer that came to his mind on a piece of paper as usual. After this

vision he looked down on the piece of parchment in his hand and it read “IAD”.

Having gotten a bit frightened after this experience, Joy decided to visit his teacher,

who is originally a psychic. The teacher silently sits there and draws a figure on a

blank piece of paper. After finishing the drawing, the teacher flips the paper and

shows Joy the sketch. With an astonished face, he examines the drawing that appeared

to look exactly like the figure from his vision. From that day onward, Joy Star decided

to become a psychic and donate the remaining time of his life helping people find

their “Spirit Guide”. Since brainwashing or misleading by the teacher may have

occurred, for the students to still believe that they are seeing their “spirit guides” must

mean that the belief in spirits comes mostly from faith because the teacher provided

no evidence of their existence.

But are all spirits good and pure? Psychics themselves have stated the

existence of evil entities that cause corruption in our world, spiritual possession being

a very common example of that. However, demonic possession has many treatments.

Of those treatments is the exorcism ritual, which is the process of expelling evil

entities from a person by making the spirit swear an oath or by commanding the spirit

to leave using the name of a higher power. So how do different religions view the

exorcism ritual? And what are the contradicting views of science and religion on

exorcism and the concept of possession?




enhanced my knowledge about the topic. The first source I encountered was an online

portal for news that originates from Singapore, and its called AsiaOne. This source

speaks about the movie “The Exorcist” and then relates it to real life situations. The

movie is about a girl, Emily, who got possessed, and this is where a major conflict

Abo Laban 58

aroused between her parents. The father believed that she was possessed and wanted

to seek the help of a priest, whereas the mother believed that her daughter is

schizophrenic and overdosed her daughter with pills to treat her. The result was that

the girl passed away, leaving both guardians in utter remorse over their deceased

daughter. This is very relatable to real life situations as conflict always arises in such

situations when the guardians do not perceive the exorcism ritual as the only solution.

Another similar source to AsiaOne I came across was an article by Harrap Chambers,

which talks about the ritual itself and how some movies, such as The Exorcist,

illustrate how it’s carried out since witnessing an actual ritual may endanger the

person’s life. Another very interesting article I read was called “Exorcism”, written by

Nancy Caciola. A very interesting part I found in it was “These evil spirits penetrate





demonically possessed person may show. This article was very helpful also because it



subject of much discussion among specialists who study the phenomenon”. Next is an


religions as it the methods used to expel the demon differs from religion to religion. It

starts out by the priest calling out to the demon to show himself, or to make any signs

of proof that he is inside the person. Usually responses are movement of furniture or

levitation of the victim’s body or none at all. He then starts reading specific parts of

the Bible or Qur’an (depending on the religion), and demands the spirit to exit the

body. If the demon refuses to leave different methods are tried out and sometimes the

ritual is paused so the body can rest. So if the ritual doesn’t work, Pfeiffer’s book has

Abo Laban 59

the answer to that. The book discusses the use of prayers as one of the methods used

during an exorcism, and states that it has proved to be the most effective. “Belief in

demons as the cause of mental health problems is a well-known phenomenon in many

cultures of the world”. The previous sentence is a quote from his book, which shows

that he had no doubts in their existence. The next source I found was a book, an

encyclopedia actually. It talks about why the spirit may possess a person and also

discusses the types of demons. Spiritual possession may occur through food, while

others may enter through air or water. The source also discusses how there are types

of demons, and some may be more evil than others. i.e. causing more damage to the

victim both physically and psychologically. It also discusses the types of demons and

possessions just like my next source, which is another book about exorcisms written

by Nancy Viola. This book is divided into chapters, each chapter telling the personal

story of a person who has been a victim of possession. Another very interesting

source I found is a book called “The Great Exorcism”. It basically talks about where

the author, Arthur Crane, believes evil is derived from. “The materialists answer

would be that originally there was nothing, except atoms of matter at a distance from

each other absolutely still and absolutely cold”. The author then talks about how God

created our world in just a few days. Moreover, Crane discusses how we are not born

good or bad people, but rather we choose whether we are going to be good or bad.

Throughout his book, he states several times how he believes that evil is not inborn,

and argues that some spirits are good, while others are evil. He concludes his chapter

by saying that only the evil spirits invade human minds, and not the pure ones.

Another book called “Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained”, explains many

unsolved mysteries to the world. It deals with philosophy being a major aspect for its

explanations. It uses theories made up by Aristotle to explain how the world came to

exist and how the human mind works. Then it argues about (from Aristotle’s point of

view) how it is we sometimes know things that we cannot remember where we learnt

Abo Laban 60

it. Aristotle’s explanation to this is that our “soul” has lived far more than our actual

bodies have, and that is why we sometimes know things that we do not remember

learning; that is, our soul has lived it but our body has not. So basically, he believes

that our soul came to existence way before our body did; however, not many theorists

agree with that. Looking at the religious part of it, being a Muslim myself, I thought it

would be interesting to find out more about the Christian religion, so this book called

“Christianity” will help me do just that. It discusses the history of Christianity and

how it started. It also discusses how churches function and the importance of priests

and such. In detail, it explains the exorcism ritual according to the Christian religion.

Other than the major books, I read a few articles; however, some of them had

contradicting, yet interesting, ideas. Online articles like “Possession” and “Demonic

Possession” discuss prayers and chants being the ultimate solution to expel evil spirits

from an individual. This is very common and can be carried out by anyone who is

religious but not necessarily a priest/sheikh. However the article “Exorcism” states

that only an exorcism ritual will result in an abolishment of the spirit, and nothing else

works. It also states that an expert must be the one to carry out this ritual. A priest

must also have a license so he can be allowed to perform the ritual on the victim. A

third article that would argue with the previous two is a scientific related one by

Michael O’Donnell. This article looks at the scientific aspect of possession. So as

expected, it does not agree with the exorcism ritual as a solution to a person who

claims to be possessed. “The infidel policy on the question is to deny the possibility

of possession in any circumstances, either on the supposition, that there are no evil

spirits in existence, or that they are powerless to influence the human body in the

manner described”. So it basically tries to disproof any evidence that the victim is

possessed, and tries to explain it from a medical point of view. Another important

source I came across was a journal by Robert Emmons called “Personal strivings: An

approach to personality and subjective well-being.” This journal discusses the

Abo Laban 61

differences between our personalities. Why we are the way we are, and what

influences our actions and behaviors. Robert says that some traits are inborn while

others are learnt through our cognitive behavior. Robert claims that society can be

split into several categories, of which are the strong-minded and the weak minded.

The weak minded are those considered to be always alone, not very friendly and

emotionally unstable. On the other hand, there is the strong-minded being, who is

thought to be very outgoing and has many friends. According to Robert’s journal,

possession occurs mainly to the weak-minded people since they are more vulnerable.

Lastly, watching a few exorcisms on YouTube gave me an idea of how they are

performed.

As for primary research, I conducted two forms- interviews and a

survey. Starting with the interview, I asked people a couple of yes or no

questions. Below is a sample of my survey.




Yes/No


experienced. Yes/No




possessed? Yes/No





I chose very general questions for my questionnaire because my topic is a very

broad topic. Also, it is not one that the public is well informed about so should my

questions have been specific or detailed, people would not have been able to answer

Abo Laban 62

them. 38 subjects filled out my questionnaire, so that was a limit to my research. My

first question, as you can see above, was “Do you believe in spirits/demons?” 59%

said yes while 41% said no they do not believe in spirits. The result I got for this

question I believe is based on how religious my audience was because it’s the main

detector of what you believe when it comes to spirits. Following my first question I

asked, “Do you believe in exorcisms?” 51.3% said that they do believe in the

exorcism ritual; however, 48.7% said no. Thirdly, as a follow up to the people who

answered yes to my previous question the next question was: “Do you believe in

exorcisms as a solution to the possessed?” 48.7% said that they do believe it is a

solution to possession whereas the other 51.3% said they do not. My next question

was “ Have you ever witnessed an exorcism? If so, please state shortly what you

experienced ” responses to this question included: “No. It would be interesting to

witness an exorcism though” and “No, but I know there are demons because it's stated

in the koraan”. I then asked my subjects if they personally knew anyone who is/has

been possessed, and most responses were a no. The next question consisted of asking

my audience whether they believe that all spirits are evil. Surprisingly, 81% said no,

leaving the other 18% in belief that are spirits are evil. Now the concept of dealing

with a possessed person falls into two main categories: the first being that the subject

is treated through the exorcism ritual, which is what mainly religious people believe.

The second is through the use of chemotherapy, which is what scientific thinking

people would go for. Having gotten the previous piece of information from my

secondary research, I decided to integrate it into my primary research as well, and

thus, this helped me choose my next question: “Do you believe in chemotherapy as a

solution to the possessed?” As predicted, 84.2% responded no and 15.8% responded

by yes. As stated previously in my paper, personality traits have proven to be a

determining factor of whether or not you are more likely to be possessed, so my next

question was: “Do you think personality traits will have an effect on whether or not

Abo Laban 63

you are more likely to be possessed?” 55.3% of those who answered said yes, and

44.7% said no. An interesting piece of information I came across while reading Nancy

Caciola’s book was that she stated that possession occurs more in women than in

men, so this influenced my decision on what the next question will be. The 10th and

last question in my survey was: “Do you believe women or men are more likely to be

possessed?” 60% answered women and 40% answered men. I was glad to see that

almost all of the information I gathered from my primary research coincided with my

secondary data, so I knew my search was accurate. The questions I chose were mostly

based on what I wanted to further investigate from my secondary research so I

integrated it into my primary search.

As for my interview, I had a thought of interviewing two subjects. The first being

a priest followed by a sheikh. I visited 4 churches; however, none of the priests at

these churches had the time as they were busy and their time is of the essence. I

visited a mosque in Korba, and the sheikh there had some free time so he let me in to

interview him. After having taken his permission to film him I asked him my very

first question: “ According to Islam, do spirits exist? And if so, is it true that they

possess humans?” Sheikh Mohammed’s response was that they do in fact exist and it

has been stated in several sections of the holy book of Islam (Qur’an). He then tells

me a short story about how Prophet Muhammad himself was possessed for 6 months

until angels of god were sent to him and released him off the spirit that was inside

him. My second question was: “How do you detect if a victim is possessed? And if he

is, how do you make the spirit exit the body?” The sheikh’s answer was that a test is

first carried out to detect if the victim is possessed or not. It starts by saying “Bism

Illah Al Rahman Al Rahim” which means in the name of Allah, and the victim is

asked to repeat this quote. Then the sheikh starts to read sections of the holy Qur’an,

and if the victim starts to feel high discomfort then he/she is likely to be possessed

and the ritual is carried on. As the Sheikh continues to read Qur’an, the demon inside

Abo Laban 64

suffers until he chooses to exit the body through one of the victim’s limbs. Once the

sheikh feels that the demon wants to get out, which he detects because the limb he

wishes to exit from starts to move slightly, he gets any small object like a stick and

waves it slowly from the head of the victim all the way to the limb that the demon has

chosen to exit from.

In conclusion, demonic possession, according to several religions, does exist and

has several cures. However, science argues otherwise because to scientifically prove

anything you need numbers and figures, and well, spirits cant provide that. Whether

you choose to believe in them or not mainly goes back to how religious you are. But

if I were you I’d watch out; some spirit might want to prove his existence to you

someday!

Abo Laban 65

Works Cited




33587.html>.




















doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1994.tb01794.x

Abo Laban 66









1058-1068. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.51.5.1058


2009. Web. 14 June 2012.


14 June 2012.



Web. 14 June 2012.

Abo Laban 67





33587.html>.
























phenomenon”.


Abo Laban 68








Christian religion.


















paper.



Abo Laban 69


















name.



<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12315a.htm>









Abo Laban 70

“Personal strivings: An approach to personality and subjective well-being.” Emmons, Robert . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 51(5), Nov 1986, 1058-1068. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.51.5.1058 This book examines the differences between personalities and how this affects











doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1994.tb01794.x









This very helpful source discusses types of possession. Demonic possession can

occur in many ways. Some demons enter through food, while others enter through

water or air. Their types include inspirational possession, demonic possession, and

psychological possession. The source also discusses different forms of demons

and how some are worse than others.



Abo Laban 71








This is a video I watched of an exorcism being performed on a Malaysian

possessed girl. The demon’s name is “Idrus” and the Sheikh expels him by

making the demon join the Islamic religion and thus, he has to follow the

Islamic religion’s rules, which includes that he is not allowed to ever possess

anyone.

Abo Laban 72

Nadine Abo Laban ID#: 900113591 Rhet 201 Journal 1 Okay, so I found a couple of sources that I could use in my paper. They’re not six yet, but they’re coming along I guess.. so I thought id start writing down my notes about what I’m finding out. Since I probably will be writing about exorcisms I thought this is what I should find sources for. Source one: "Exorcism." Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. London: Chambers Harrap, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 11 June 2012. This is a book I found using one search. It discusses the expelling of evil spirits from a certain possessed person by prayers. It was a practice by the ancients; however, it got taken over by the Christian church, after the example of Christ who healed those possessed of evil spirits. The use of exorcisms by priests in church is very carefully regulated. But the theory has been used in several movies such as “the exorcism” and “the exorcism of Emily rose” Source two: "exorcism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/198273/exorcism>.

This one states that exorcism is a ritual addressed to evil spirits to force them to abandon an object, place, or person. It is a ceremony used in both Jewish and Christian religions to expel evil spirits from people who have come under their power. In Christianity, Jesus expelled demons that enter a person by a word; and stated that this act was a sign of the coming of God’s Kingdom .many of his followers drove out demons “in his name.

Source three: "Christianity." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/115240/Christianity>. This source gives an in depth explanation of the exorcism ritual. The tools needed and the items and people that must be present. It also discusses in detail the religion itself. Seeing as I will be looking at exorcisms from several backgrounds and religions this source will help enhance my knowledge about the Christian religion. Source four: Caciola, Nancy. "Exorcism." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 2927-‐2938. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 June 2012. (http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE|CX3424500986&v=2.1&u=aucairo&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&authCount=1) This was my favorite source so far because it combines information I need about the three religions Christianity, islam, and jew in one document. It also discusses the psychological aspect of it which might be interesting to explore. Source five:

Abo Laban 73

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Story/A1Story20071101-‐33587.html This source shows the different approaches have to exorcism. I wont be talking about all the religions only the main ones, however I will use this source to talk about Buddhism for example. Source six: My last source will be a video, a movie actually “The exorcism of Emily rose” it’s a movie about a girl who gets possessed and a priest attempts to help her by asking her to stop chemotherapy, which eventually kills her so the priest is charged and trialed for being responsible for her death. And the movie is about the trial happening and the priest is explaining her story.

Abo Laban 74

Nadine Abo Laban ID#: 900113591 Rhet 201 Journal entry #2 Okay, so I found a couple of sources that I could use in my paper. They’re not six yet, but they’re coming along I guess.. so I thought id start writing down my notes about what I’m finding out. Since I probably will be writing about exorcisms I thought this is what I should find sources for. Source one: "Exorcism." Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. London: Chambers Harrap, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 11 June 2012. This is a book I found using one search. It discusses the expelling of evil spirits from a certain possessed person by prayers. It was a practice by the ancients; however, it got taken over by the Christian church, after the example of Christ who healed those possessed of evil spirits. The use of exorcisms by priests in church is very carefully regulated. But the theory has been used in several movies such as “the exorcism” and “the exorcism of Emily rose” Source two: "exorcism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/198273/exorcism>.

This one states that exorcism is a ritual that addresses demons and attempts to force them to exit an object or a person. The ceremony is common and used in both Jewish and Christian religions to demolish any evil spirit that enters someone. In Christianity, Jesus expelled demons that enter a human. many of his followers drove out demons “in his name.

Source three: "Christianity." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/115240/Christianity>. This source gives an in depth explanation of the exorcism ritual. The tools needed and the items and people that must be present. It also discusses in detail the religion itself. Seeing as I will be looking at exorcisms from several backgrounds and religions this source will help enhance my knowledge about the Christian religion. Source four: Caciola, Nancy. "Exorcism." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 2927-‐2938. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 June 2012. (http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE|CX3424500986&v=2.1&u=aucairo&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&authCount=1) This was my favorite source so far because it combines information I need about the three religions Christianity, islam, and jew in one document. It also discusses the psychological aspect of it which might be interesting to explore. Source five:

Abo Laban 75

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Story/A1Story20071101-‐33587.html This source shows the different approaches have to exorcism. I wont be talking about all the religions only the main ones, however I will use this source to talk about Buddhism for example. Source six: My last source will be a video, a movie actually “The exorcism of Emily rose” it’s a movie about a girl who gets possessed and a priest attempts to help her by asking her to stop chemotherapy, which eventually kills her so the priest is charged and trialed for being responsible for her death. And the movie is about the trial happening and the priest is explaining her story.

Abo Laban 76

Nadine Abo Laban ID#: 900113591 Rhet 201 Dr.gibson Journal entry #3 The four additional sources I found that are worthy enough to be used in my paper were:-‐ Source one: Caciola, Nancy. "Exorcism." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 2927-2938. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 June 2012. (http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3424500986&v=2.1&u=aucairo&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w) This source is one of the best I’ve found yet, as I read through it however it seemed a little biased to me towards the end. However the information provided was more than helpful. It combines time with the religions and how exorcism evolved over time. Something I have not seen discussed or addressed in any other source so far. Source two: Crane, Arthur. The Great Exorcism. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Arthur Crane, 1915. (http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3130937;page=root;view=image;size=100;seq=10;num=4) This is a very interesting book I found, it was published in 1915. By Arthur Crane. I didn’t read the whole book of course, but in the first few chapters I skimmed through, it was talking about exorcism in the Christian religion and in the next few chapters were stories of something that happened that have been recorded. Source three: "exorcism." Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. London: Chambers Harrap, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 13 June 2012. (http://www.credoreference.com.library.aucegypt.edu:2048/entry/chambun/exorcism)

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This source that I stumbled upon discusses possession on general. Not the ritual itself. It discusses why demons/ evil spirits possess a person. How it does that. Apparently they can enter through food, water or air. And can remain inside a human for over 30 years. It discusses how and why persons get possessed and then it gets into ways of expelling the demon from the victim. Source four: "demons." Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. London: Chambers Harrap, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 13 June 2012. (http://www.credoreference.com.library.aucegypt.edu:2048/entry/chambun/demons) So, so far I’ve found out stuff about the exorcism ritual, about the religious aspect of it, how its done, how it has evolved over time.. But I noticed i forgot to search for information about one important thing.. The demons themselves! This source speaks specifically about the demons. This information will give me a better understanding of why they decide to enter a person. So having thought a lot about this, I’ve decided to go for the exorcism topic because it’s the one im interested in most and well because I’ve done too much effort in my research to change my mind now.. its very fascinating to me, the connection between our world and theirs and how they can enter ours but we know barely anything about their world. My research question will be: How do different Religions view the exorcism ritual? And the contradicting views of science and religion on exorcism and the concept of possession. Sub points:-

- What are exorcisms - Who performs them - What religions believe in them - How do diff religions perform exorcisms differently - Scientific aspect - How has the ritual altered over time

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Nadine Abo Laban ID#: 900113591 Dr. Gibson Journal entry 4 The Process: Well primary research is all about getting direct information, not second hand. It includes surveys, questionnaires and interviews. For my paper I am going to conduct a survey that I have already began distributing to people and my goal number is a little over a hundred people. And I will also carry out a few interviews with some key people that will provide me with useful information for my paper. Starting with the questionnaire; here are the questions I am asking people: ( I will be subdividing my group of people to ensure that the number of males and females that take the survey are equal, and I will also ensure they are from different religions since that is a key aspect in my research)




Yes/No


experienced. Yes/No




possessed? Yes/No





Now only a few number of people have answered my survey, but it appears to be that very few people actually even believe in spirits in the first place. At the end of my survey I asked people to fill out their personal information such as their name, age, gender etc. The next part of my primary research consists of carrying out interviews with a few people. Now im doing both sides so I’ll be asking experts and regular people. And those aren’t the only sides im taking.. I’ll also be asking people from

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different religions. Lastly, I will also be sure to include a scientific figure to get a whole new point of view on the matter. So starting with a sheikh or a priest.. I will ask general questions such as:

-‐ Why do demons exist

-‐ Are they all evil

-‐ Why do they possess people

-‐ A brief explanation of the exorcism ritual

-‐ Their previous experience with such things

As for the scientist my questions will be more like the ones I asked in my survey like:

-‐ Do you believe in spirits

-‐ Do you believe in possession

-‐ Scientific explanation for possession

-‐ Scientific methods of curing a possessed person

The Progress:

-‐ Survey: well I’ve only gotten 16 responses to my survey so far.. 9 males and 7 females. The most answer I found intriguing is that most people answered question number 10: “Do you believe men or women are more likely to be possessed?” most people said men; however, according to a reliable source I found using the library database stated that women are more likely to be possessed and in fact most possession cases worldwide are women. The approximate time taken by a person to solve my survey was 2.5 minutes as tested on 3 family members.

-‐ Interviews: I’ve already started working on my questions but I have no actually carried out any interviews yet because I am still in search for the perfect candidates, as I want them to be professional candidates. I will try to make the interviews brief but precise and to the point so I can get as much information out as possible

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Nadine Abo Laban ID#: 900113591 Rhet 201 Dr. Gibson Journal 5 The part I enjoyed most was doing the primary research. Even though my

questionnaire was only answered by 38 people, which limited my research, I still

managed to extract the information I needed. And I loved how the info I got from my

primary research coincided with all the information I got from my secondary data. I

also loved doing the interviews. I wanted to interview a priest and a sheikh n lastly,

someone who’s witnessed an exorcism. When I couldn’t enter a church to interview a

priest I headed to the mosque to ask the sheikh for some of his time, and he let me in.

I asked him all the questions I needed answered and he was more than helpful. I even

found some common ground between the Christian and the Islam Religions. They

both compose similar tests to see if a person is possessed or not because the body’s

temperature is usually very hot. Also, both religions according to an article I read

about Christianity that I compared with what the sheikh told me, both religions agree

that possession is more likely to occur to women not men. Id also like to further

investigate and know why that is. The sheikh told me that women have this glow to

them than the spirits can easily see in pitch darkness and are more attracted to them.

Also, I loved doing the presentation, and sharing all the information I found out with

my classmates, even freaking them out just a lill bit . Writing the paper itself was a

bit challenging for me because all the information I found out I found it a bit hard to

word it all, so my wording for it wasn’t as effective as I would have liked it to be.

Nonetheless, I loved and believed in my topic and I did my best in writing it. In my

paper, my aim was to talk about different religion views of the exorcism ritual. but as

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I got deeper and deeper into my research I found myself getting more attracted to

discovering more about the spirits themselves, why they are the way they are, y they

possess people.. so my paper became more drawn to that issue. It was a great

experience, and im saddened as I write my last journal entry.. because I loved this

class.. my doctor , and all my classmates.

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