DEMONIC possession is a subject that can elicit a chuckle in some quarters, but is taken as a deadly serious matter in others. Recently, some Jamaican men of the cloth have claimed that there has been an increase in the number of cases of so-called ‘demon-possession’ in which they are being asked to intervene.

Some of these pastors attribute this religious phenomenon to increasing scepticism about spiritual matters; greater access to a range of cultural, spiritual and religious thinking and practices via the Internet; and widespread sexual permissiveness.

Forty-eight year-old Marcia (surname withheld to protect her privacy) is convinced she was delivered from demonic spirits in 2007 after attending a service at a tent crusade where she was prayed over. The mother of two said she had struggled for more that 16 years with what she calls ‘demonic tendencies’ and was prescribed traditional medications by doctors who attributed her strange behaviour to mental illness.

“I was ill, I was out of my mind, I would hear like voices calling me,” she told the Sunday Observer recently. She said her family members were concerned about her because sometimes she would be walking the streets with a machete and talking to herself.

“I went to several doctors but they didn’t tell me anything concrete, they only gave me tablets for my nerves,” she said.

Marcia, who was eventually admitted to Ward 21 — the psychiatric ward at the University Hospital of the West Indies — said she would roam the streets and heard voices around September each year. However, she has not done so since attending the crusade three years ago, where Spanish Town revival church pastor Reverend Dr Rohan Edwards prayed for her.

“He called an altar call and laid his hands on me and I began to pray, and after that, I felt a conviction come over me and I say I am going to give my life to God,” said Marcia who pointed out that she has not had any relapse since and has therefore stopped taking her medications.

Bishop Edwards said he has performed a number of similar ‘deliverance services’ over the years and, like other pastors the Sunday Observer interviewed, he said he has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people coming to him for help to ward off malevolent spirits. In an average week, he said he receives about 10 requests for ‘deliverance’ from people who believe they are under the influence of evil spirits, and that figure increases when his church hosts a crusade.

“It’s a lot I have dealt with, so I know exactly what I am talking about. A lot of them (demons) are around and sometimes they are living in people’s heart that you would be surprised to know who they are living in. People sometimes look calm and cool, but when they begin to activate, you realise that something is wrong,” said Bishop Edwards.

“Some of us have that power to rebuke (demons) and we acknowledge that these powers are around and we have the power to cast them out,” he said.

Bishop Joseph Ade-Gold, founder of the Overcomers World Ministries located in Kingston and Mandeville, claimed that the number of spiritual/demonic interventions he has had to perform has tripled in the last year or so.

According to the pastor, who said he has dedicated the past 25 years to helping those with spiritual disorders, a number of cases have been referred to him, not only by other pastors, but by medical doctors, including psychiatrists, who, he claimed, cannot find medical reasons for their patients’ behaviour.

“Sometimes, in a week we get 35 persons,” said Ade-Gold, whose ministry performs what are known as ‘deliverance and restoration’ services for the emotionally and spiritually distressed, and offers training in the rudiments of what it calls ‘spiritual warfare’.

“We do like counselling and deliverance on spiritual issues. So somebody might go to the hospital and they cannot find anything wrong with them, so they will come. We do deliverance for people who have bad dreams and obeah in their lives, and people who suffer from generational curses like those people who have businesses and their businesses cannot survive,” explained Ade-Gold.

He attributed the recent multiple murder/suicide cases the country has grappled with to ‘demonic infestations’ brought on by the worldwide economic recession that has robbed many people of their income. He said men with suicidal tendencies are among those who have been coming to him for help.

“It is because of the kind of depression that we are in. Some of the cases I have been dealing with, it’s because they’ve lost jobs, they have no money to do whatever they need to do, their wives or their women leaving them creates a level of imbalances which demons take advantage of and influence them,” said the pastor, whose views have been supported by pastors from other churches who spoke to the Sunday Observer.

“So they will come, they want to commit suicide, they want to run away, they are angry at home and they want to kill anybody around them,” he pointed out.

The calls for these deliverance services have been overwhelming for pastor of the Portmore Lane Covenant Community Church Rev Dr Donald Stewart. He said he has even stopped using cellular phones because the calls from persons asking for spiritual help have made it hard for him to concentrate on his other pastoral duties.

“Deliverance entails speaking God’s word and rebuking (the demon) in the name of Jesus based on the authority that you have as a Christian, and the Holy Spirit working in you. It is all tied to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” explained Rev Dr Stewart, who said he has since taken the decision to send persons who come to him for help, back to their own pastors to perform the rites for them.

“Part of my principle is that each church must now get involved, so though I get calls everyday, I don’t particularly deal with everyone by myself,” he said.

But even with some pastors now taking responsibility for their congregants’ spiritual woes, Rev Dr Stewart said he still has to work with guidance counsellors and parents to assist students suspected of having demonic tendencies. He explained that some of these young afflicted persons do not belong to a church and others are referred to him by doctors when conventional medicine fails.

“I have had psychiatrists and psychologists and medical doctors referring people to me, because those are honest enough to know that what they are dealing with is not something where they can help the person. There are others who may not be so honest and who are prescribing drugs, especially psychiatric drugs to people and keeping them in a prison,” the pastor said, while pointing out that not all the doctors who refer patients to him are even Christians.

But noted psychiatrist Professor Fred Hickling poured cold water on the pastors’ claims that individuals can be possessed by evil spirits. Instead, he attributes psychotic behaviour observed in people claiming to be demon-possessed, to mental illness.

“I have been a psychiatrist for many years and I have never seen anybody who has claimed to be demon-possessed. I have never seen them helped by a pastor or a religious person,” said Professor Hickling, who has been practising for over 40 years.

“My clinical observations are that it’s just not possible. I personally do not have any belief in demon possession and I think when people are psychotic, something is wrong with their brain and not with their soul,” he said.

Dr Anthony Allen, a psychiatrist of over 35 years who has also studied theology, admitted there are instances where he has referred patients to religious leaders after deep psychiatric assessment and analysis had shown that their situation could have a spiritual connection. Still, he said it is irresponsible for a psychiatrist to tell someone that they are ‘demon possessed’.

“The typical scientist, in terms of the human scientist in medicine, psychiatrist, etc, is not going to acknowledge from a scientific perspective that these things (demons) exist. If somebody has a mental illness for example, they are not going to say that this is due to demon spirits or anything like that,” he said.

“The concern of the medical field really has to do with the natural phenomenon, or natural events having to do with the body, having to do with the brain and even having to do with the mind. So it is not the job of a psychiatrist to even be talking about anything to do with the spiritual because they cannot prove that scientifically,” he said.

The doctor said he had done research on demonic possession after the topic came up during the treatment of patients over the years. He said there have been situations where medical science or psychology has no way of explaining the experiences of some patients, which lead to some doctors suggesting that the patient see someone in their religious community who is able to deal with the phenomenon.

“You have some clergy who believe in the ministry of deliverance, in other words, praying for people to be delivered from demonic forces who will in fact feel or observe behaviour that might suggest a psychiatric illness and they will send that person to see a psychiatrist. You have such responsible ministers,” he said, even as he cautioned that there are some pastors who are extremist and who take the dangerous view that anything psychiatric is demonic.

Rev Dr Stewart explained that he has had to refer people to psychiatrists in the past after intense pre-deliverance counselling proved them psychotic instead of possessed, but, he insisted that most of the cases he sees are legitimate cases of demonic possession.

“It is more a modernistic way of thinking, where we feel that spiritual things are of the past and that we are in a post-Christian civilisation, some would like to say.

“There is a tendency in circles where people are very intellectual or very scientific to think that spiritual things are really just a figment of people’s imagination,” he said.

Whereas evangelical pastors perform deliverance services to remove demons, those in the Catholic and Anglican faith perform exorcisms, which are more ritualistic in nature.

Checks by the Sunday Observer revealed that there are four exorcists in the local Anglican church fraternity, but none in the country’s Roman Catholic archdiocese.

Monsignor Kenneth Richards from the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston, said that while local priests are able to perform various rituals such as baptisms, an exorcist from a neighbouring Caribbean island is brought over to remove demons from someone considered possessed.

“The demonic world is a reality that the church is aware of,” he said. “Jesus’ ministry was one that confronted the demonic and the evil of this world.”

The priest said individuals who visit Catholic churches for exorcisms have to undergo psychiatric evaluations to ensure they are not mentally challenged. In most cases, he said, the situation amounts to the individual needing psychiatric treatment and counselling. He said the local Catholic Church has not performed an exorcism in quite a while, since there have not been many cases coming before the church.

President of the Jamaica Council of Churches Rev Dr Paul Gardner believes that only some pastors are gifted with the ability to deliver people from demon possession. He was not able to say whether there has been an increase in cases coming before the churches that fall under the JCC umbrella, but he did support the belief that persons can be possessed by demons.

“If we are going to be truthful and faithful to the scriptures, then we have to admit that there is something called demon possession,” he said, while pointing out that the Bible tells us that Jesus and His disciples had cast out several demons.

Secretary for the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Milton Gregory, said deliverance services are not widely practised by that church’s local congregation. However, prayers are usually offered for those considered possessed.

“The demonic world is real,” he said. “We would never deny that, we have seen it so many times.”

Rev Dr Stewart believes demons are even active in local churches, where, he claims, up to 10 per cent of the Jamaican Christian population has, at one point, been possessed by incubus — male spirits who rape women in their sleep, and succubus — female spirits who rape sleeping men.

“Those are Latin words which describe demonic spirits that molest people sexually. So people are harassed in their sleep sexually. Sometimes it’s even while they are awake too,” he said.

The pastor blames the surge in demon possession cases on the Internet and the movie and cable industry which glorify pain and death. He believes it is also linked to sexual permissiveness in the country.

“There is a lot of promiscuity and sexual permissiveness, where we think it is okay to do this, it is okay to touch, it’s okay to do that, and many times, that’s where the problem is…” Rev Dr Stewart said. “We look at some of the wrong things on the television or on the Internet, it influences our thoughts, lustful thoughts develop, it leads to masturbation, fantasising, and it opens the door wide,” he said.

The pastor, who said he has witnessed several near suicides in his time, is currently writing a book on the subject of demon possession.

“I have seen some very traumatic things. I have seen people trying to throw themselves off buildings, diving through windows on second floor buildings. I have seen people who stripped themselves naked, doing all types of crazy sex things,” he said.

“I have seen people actually trying to kill themselves with weapons, knives and those kinds of things. I have seen people even sexually attacking the persons who are praying for them. I have encountered people who have boxed, kicked and karate chop and so,” he added.

Bishop Ade-Gold told the Sunday Observer that plans to turn his deliverance centres in Kingston and Mandeville into deliverance hospitals have been hampered by a lack of money. He said the establishment of deliverance hospitals would allow his team of counsellors to better monitor those patients who have been delivered from the clutches of evil spirits.