[Phantasm]

Last night I was watching a paranormal show where there was this lady who had been feeling sick for seven years. She felt tired and depressed. A team came in and believed she had a negative spiritual attachment - a djinn - maybe sent as a curse, which would cause her to feel drained and think she was going mad.

They brought in an Imam and conducted an exorcism, which was quite dramatic. The lady could see the djinn in her minds eye, and the SLS camera was picking up shapes where she said it had moved to as it tried to escape. Eventually it was dead, and the next day the woman said she felt like a new person, like a great weight had been lifted.

So I wondered if people believe in genuine negative attachments, or if you think it's just a metaphor for psychological problems? Either way, I sometimes like to do meditations on being released from negativity, which is a pleasant experience.

 

[Trith]

There are other explanations than a metaphor for psychological problems. I don't know anything about negative spiritual attachment, but a lot of paranormal phenomena like possessions have been explained simply by people lying. There are lot's of shows about people visiting haunted places and recording certain noises and you can find examples of such videos being debunked, with people showing that the videos or sounds have been manipulated. This doesn't prove that paranormal phenomena do not exist, but it proves that TV shows often lie about this stuff in order to make money.

 

[coolwhip27]

It’s possible that whatever they did cured a problem that has no real roots in what they thought. However the person was affected may have helped them but not necessarily because what they believed was true, AND it wasn’t necessarily a direct cause. See, the main factor is how the person was affected. And it sounds like the person in question’s mind state had a lot to do with it. That makes the cause and effect of said solution as indirect, and for all we know this person isn’t as good as they thought anymore.

With that being said, I’ve experienced my own intrusive thoughts and ideas about being “possessed”. The reason it doesn’t scare me anymore is because I know that the closest thing you can get to being possessed is just believing that you are. And that’s not really close at all

 

[Phantasm]

That's true, Trith, that you have to be suspect about people involved in TV or media, as the paranormal is almost an industry now.

Coolwhip, the last thing he did was to ask her to bring in her dead parents' spirits, and it ended with her father's spirit stamping on the djinn. So, a djinn? Or clever use of psychology relating to unresolved parental issues.

 

[Phantasm]

Belief seems to be the defining factor here. Chances are - assuming you are not trying to get your video viral - that if you think you've been cursed your cupboard doors wont start flapping open and all your belongings wont start flying around the room like on paranormal shows - if this is really happening then you do need a priest!

But I remember a bit on Unsolved Mysteries where this guy believed he was cursed and was pretty-much dying in a hospital bed, even though tests could show nothing wrong with him. A couple of junior doctors threw together a ceremony, which was basically made-up, performed it for him, and the next day he started a miraculous recovery. So it was his belief in the ritual that got him better, just as his belief in a curse made him sick.