OPINION: Possessed by Ignorance

April 29, 2013 First published in The News Today Libre

Nine young people were reported of being possessed by evil spirits in Oton, Iloilo. As a modern society, the first thing the crowd did was call on quack doctors and drag the teenagers to church as if it was The Omen without even turning towards medicine for an explanation of the “possessions”.

I hope this modern society also recognizes sarcasm.

Before you brand me as a heretic, or an atheist (which this modern society also views as the work of the devil) may we please take our seats and act like civilized men. I was baptized Roman Catholic and I try to be a progressive Christian, although the term is highly debatable, so we have at least something in common.

In Ancient Greece, there was a Delphic Oracle that mumbled prophecies and unintelligible words. If Ancient Greece was in Oton, the Delphic Oracle could have been dragged to church. However, it is not and I thank God for that.

Years later, it was discovered that the Oracle’s cave exhumed gas that triggered a kind of seizure causing the mumbling.

Yes, the Delphic Oracle was just high. And the children from Oton, because they come from the same dance group, could have eaten something or was exposed to a substance that caused the “possessions”.

Possessions don’t just happen everyday and it takes a priest a generous amount of time before an exorcism will be declared necessary. I have heard that it is only the Vatican which can decide on cases of possession. The quack doctors definitely do not have an organized denomination to decide how to do an exorcism or what animals to offer for a spirit to leave.

So if you tell me that what the crowd did was what a good Roman Catholic would do, you are wrong. And you are accused of trampling all over the First Commandment. Congratulations.

The recent reports say that actual members of the clergy were not present during the “cleansing” processes.

The worst part is, we are submitting the lives of nine teenagers into whatever violent pre-Catholic beliefs we have. I am familiar with people falling into faint spells or even violently convulse. There is a specific way of handling them, making sure they don’t break their bones or choke on their own saliva.

What was described to me by shaking radio reporters were teenagers constrained by ten or so people. If a person is moving with strong force, pinning them down can lead to serious injuries.

Seizures are when electrical signals in the brain don’t just add up and then turn into a mumbo-jumbo of triggers. This is the reason why seizures could mean flailing around of arms, whining sounds, and the rolling of eyes.

With regards to the speculation of supernatural strength, it is scientifically proven that  a hormone by the name adrenaline allows the human body to exceed its natural capacity in times of need (or because of a disruption of signals in the brain as in a seizure).

When they start pacing around as if they exist in some other dimension, it can only be a sign of seizure. I am not a medical doctor but I have read from reputable sources that these “sleepwalk-esque” events may happen after an attack.

What appears to me is that the whole Oton crowd had a total misreading of The Exorcism of Emily Rose and showered the poor children with religious fanaticism. It is ok to be faithful but we must protect other people from our own assumed truths.

This is an open letter to the people of Oton and the Iloilo province in general who often report on the matter without any inclination to seek scientific explanation. Priests have reminded me always that science and religion are never the enemies and to seek medical opinion does not mean you are turning away from the power of God.

Also, priests are there to guide us. Quack doctors work on our faith but their reliability on treating or managing convulsion of demonic or otherwise origins do not have effective foundations.

This is why it is important to understand what religion truly is and not be pacified by what we hear or what we come from. Those nine teenagers do not need to be subjects of sensationalism and the human need for some horror. Let us not turn the Oton events into another bad movie.

And if we want some progress, we must start with what goes on inside our heads./LLutero