Spirit Possession and Psychiatric Disorders：The Concept and Practice of Spiritual Healing

• Main Authors: Joo, Sue Hwa, 朱淑華
• Other Authors: Hsieh, Shu Wei
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/bvk2w6

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 宗教研究所 === 103 === Mental disorder is as old as mankind itself. In ancient times, people considered “madness” an act imposed by a supernatural power, and believed that it was the “devil” or “demonic spirit(s)” who invaded a person’s body and/or mind that drove him insane. This belief was universally accepted across the western and the eastern cultures as well as among various religions，and led to the concept of divine beings and demons. Religious healing (faith healing) and spiritual healing emerged as means to exorcise the evils from those who were affected. It thus can be conceived that ancient intervention in treating psychiatric disorders is within the realm of religion. Since the dawn of written history, all major religions, including Christianity, Buddhism and Taoism, had documented the practice of spiritual healing. Nowadays, although spiritual healing practices are diminishing due to the rise of the evidence-based medical thinking and modern technologies, spiritual healings are not abandoned by common people. Cases treated by the spiritual healing are still reported in the religious, anthropological, and medical/health literatures. The World Health Organization regards psychiatric disorders as one of the global health burdens and challenges in this century. In the meantime, we are facing fast changes in political and social-economical welfare, which result in a rapid increase in the number of people suffering from psychiatric disorders. Due to many unsuccessful treatments by the conventional medicine, many people turn to spiritual healing as their last resource for a cure. In this article, we explore the metaphysical causality and the significance of karma and possession, in particular with schizophrenic disorders. Eight diagnosed cases, relating the spiritual possession and their recoveries after active spiritual healing sessions conducted by the author, are reported. The commonality among all these cases is the identification of one indispensable key to the restitution of mental well being, and that is the profound repentance of the individual’s misconducts in the present and the past lives. Therefore, profound repentance is considered to be the key to the effective treatment of possessed psychotic patients who are subdued by their karma. A revisit to the spiritual healing and its implications to the treatment of psychiatric disorders are also provided and discussed.