Ceremonies called Pujas often include the drumming of three to five tappu to invoke the deity to the space. [110] Then, the head pujari receives the God or Goddess into their body, acting as a medium. A mixture of water, turmeric powder, and neem leaves are poured onto the medium, as it is believed that the God's energy heats up the body while the water and turmeric with the neem leaves cools it down again. [111] Puja services are often held once a week. In tormenting humans whom he hates, the Devil can feel solely a very wretched type of satisfaction because it does not diminish his torments, nor does God permit him to destroy man. Jagel K. Half of Americans believe in possession by the Devil. Today.YouGov.com; September 17, 2013. https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2013/09/17/hal…

In Sunday’s Gospel, the authority of Christ is revealed when He commands an “unclean spirit” to “come out” of the possessed man. Catholic teaching and traditional Catholic spiritual theology recognize that in some cases of diabolical possession, the faculties of the soul of the subject are dormant, allowing the demon (or demons) control over the body. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Exorcism". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.Jinn are much more physical than spirits. [30] Due to their subtle bodies, which are composed of fire and air ( marijin min nar), they are purported to be able to possess the bodies of humans. Such physical intrusion of the jinn is conceptually different from the whisperings of the devils. [31] Since jinn are not necessarily evil, they are distinguished from cultural concepts of possession by devils/demons. [32]

In contrast to jinn, the devils ( shayatin) are inherently evil. [43] Iblis, the father of the devils, dwells in the fires of hell, although not suffering wherein, he and his children try to draw people into damnation of hell. [44] Devils don't physically possess people, they only tempt humans into sin by following their lower nafs. [45] [46] Hadiths suggest that the devils whisper from within the human body, within or next to the heart, and so "devilish whisperings" ( Arabic: waswās وَسْوَاس) are sometimes thought of as a kind of possession. [47] Unlike possession by jinn, the whispering of devils affects the soul instead of the body. Al-Krenawi, A.; Graham, J.R. (1997). "Spirit Possession and Exorcism in the Treatment of a Bedouin Psychiatric Patient". Clinical Social Work Journal. 25 (2): 211. doi: 10.1023/A:1025714626136. S2CID 140937987. Diem, Werner; Schöller, Marco (2004). The Living and the Dead in Islam: Epitaphs as texts. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p.144. ISBN 9783447050838.Devaputra-māra, the deva of the sensuous realm, who tries to prevent Gautama Buddha from attaining liberation from the cycle of rebirth on the night of the Buddha's enlightenment. [99] Exorcisms were also common. They can be reconstructed from both Medieval Jewish texts and texts from neighboring ancient cultures that practiced exorcisms. Exorcists acting almost like shamans would do rituals to exorcise one of a "demon" or evil spirit. According to Gina Konstantopoulos, a figure named an "Āshipu" acted as a exorcist in Mesopotamia and were trained in many fields of occultism, priesthood and herbalism. [92] As amulets (called teraphim) were also used in Yahwism to ward off evil spirits, it may also be reconstructed that there were people in Ancient Israel who acted as exorcists or shamans who would do specific rituals to ward off evil spirits. As mentioned previously, these may have included music, incense, prayers, and trance-rituals. According to Reimund Leicht, formulae was used ward off the evil, along with ritualistic sacrifices. [93] Buddhism [ edit ] Since such jinn are said to have free will, they can have their own reasons to possess humans and are not necessarily harmful. There are various reasons given as to why a jinn might seek to possess an individual, such as falling in love with them, taking revenge for hurting them or their relatives, or other undefined reasons. [33] [34] At an intended possession, the covenant with the jinn must be renewed. [35] Soothsayers ( kāhin pl. kuhhān), would use such possession to gain hidden knowledge. Inspirations from jinn by poets requires neither possession nor obedience to the jinn. Their relationship is rather described as mutual. [36]

We see it in the lives of the saints when they are obsessed by the thought or sensation of being damned. Therefore, it is necessary to realize that there are situations in which it is possible to make a discernment of an obsession of the extraordinary action of the Devil by observing the efficacy or nonefficacy of the blessings and prayers of liberation. Diabolical possession The New Testament indicates that people can be possessed by demons, but that the demons respond and submit to Jesus Christ's authority:Female workers in Malaysian factories have allegedly become possessed by spirits, and factory owners generally regard it as mass hysteria and an intrusion of irrational and archaic beliefs into a modern setting. [109] The Catholic Encyclopedia says that there is only one apparent case of demonic possession in the Old Testament, of King Saul being tormented by an "evil spirit" ( 1 Samuel 16:14), but this depends on interpreting the Hebrew word " rûah" as implying a personal influence which it may not, so even this example is described as "not very certain". In addition, Saul was only described to be tormented, rather than possessed, and he was relieved from these torments by having David play the lyre to him. [14] Exorcism of the Gerasene Demonaic Those who did still see a spiritual source to such suffering began to speak in terms of "obsession" rather than "possession," Klepper explained. This might have allowed for "a more compassionate response to the mentally ill," which would have been less terrifying to the individual's neighbors, she said. Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference

Nabokov, Isabelle (1997). "Expel the Lover, Recover the Wife: Symbolic Analysis of a South Indian Exorcism". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 3 (2): 297–316. doi: 10.2307/3035021. JSTOR 3035021. This idea had not crossed my mind, but then I recalled reading an excellent book by Fr. Mike Driscoll that spoke about this called Demons, Deliverance, Discernment: Separating Fact from Fiction about the Spirit World. Griffel, Frank (2005). Islam and rationality: the impact of al-Ghazālī: papers collected on his 900th anniversary. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. p.103. ISBN 978-9-004-29095-2. Influenced by the religion of Islam, among the several spirits in Indonesian belief are demons ( setan), composed of fire, prone to anger and passion. They envy humans for their physical body, and try to gain control of it. When they assault a human, they would intrude their mind, trying to displace the human spirit. The human's mind would adapt to the passions of anger, violence, irrationality and greed, the intruding demon is composed of. The demon is believed to alter the person, giving him supernatural attributes, like strength of many men, ability to appear in more than one place, or assume the form of an animal, such as a tiger or a pig, or to kill without touching. Others become lunatics, resembling epilepsy. In extreme cases, the presence of the demon may alter the condition of the body, matching its own spiritual qualities, turning into a raksasha. [108] Cuneo, Michael (1999). "Exorcism". Contemporary American Religion. Vol.1. Macmillan Reference USA: Gale eBooks. pp.243–245 . Retrieved 3 December 2019.In the face of terrible suffering, we would be well advised to avoid the errors of the “friends of Job,” attempting to assign blame and presuming to explain in detail the mysterious ways of God. Equally annoying and unproductive would be to dismiss intense suffering with pious platitudes. The time-tested devotion to “offer up” one’s sufferings in union with Christ on the cross is not at root a platitude – and should be taught by attentive mothers everywhere when children come crying to them. But it can be reduced to a banality when a compassionate silent presence is rather called for, or when it is used as an on-the-run “easy answer” tossed in the direction of the chronically ill.