It's the Devil (The Story behind the Exorcist and Exorcisms)

Explicit content warning

10/19/22 • 49 min

The notion of exorcisms have lingered in the zeitgeist so insistently along those religious and superstitious. The idea that a malicious spirit or demon would take control of your body, your vessel, suppressing the soul might sound outdated to some but for others the devil is real and he is everywhere. He’s influencing you to do yoga, seducing you to the dark realm through your television, speaking to you through music but how did this medieval phenomenon make a come back in the 20th and 21st century. Was it the fault of one 1973 film? Joseph Laycock, the editor of the Penguin book of Exorcism explained, in modern US, exorcism was once rare...all this changed after 1973 when the exorcist created a massive demand
Further Reading:
Poole W. S. (2009) Satan in America: The Devil We Know. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Chambers, A. C. (2021). ‘Somewhere between science and superstition’: Religious outrage, horrific science, and The Exorcist (1973). History of the Human Sciences, 34(5), 32–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951211004465
@Salon. “Vatican Unleashes Exorcist for Campaign of Crazy | Salon.com.” Vatican Unleashes Exorcist for Campaign of Crazy, 17 Mar. 2010, www.salon.com/2010/03/17/catholic_exorcist_blames_satan.
Elwes, Jay. “The Insatiable Human Appetite for Exorcism.” The Insatiable Human Appetite for Exorcism, Mar. 2010, www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society-and-culture/the-insatiable-human-appetite-for-exorcism-laycock-review.

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Previous Episode

If You Have Ghosts (A Collection of 3 Ghost Stories from 3 Different Countries)

From ancient Babylon to China, Native America to Shinto Japan, Shakespeare to The Shining, ghost stories have been passed down from century to century, through oral traditions or the written word. It doesn't matter if it's a vindictive king, a weeping woman, or an apartment building. These stories have influenced our contemporary imagination. The belief is so widespread that it is considered a cultural universal.
Following ghosts through time and space, from dusty spirits to ghosts in machines, reveals that ghosts have a unique ability to reflect the worries of their historical moment. Paying attention to what frightens them can teach us about ourselves.
Today we will look at how ghosts have persisted and evolved over time by looking at 3 different ghost stories from 3 different parts of the world and how they differed over time. Welcome to a Conversation Before the world ends and we will be looking at the History of Ghosts:Music:
" HORROR THEME " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"
Music link : https://youtu.be/LwjzmdiRFpc
"Yurei" composed and produced by Kraosando
Extra Reading:
A Japanese Ghost Story : Yotsuya Kaidan
https://www.peak-experience-japan.com/blog/652
Simpson, William K. (1972). Simpson, William Kelly (ed.). The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, and Poetry. translations by R.O.
Charles Edwin Price (January 1994). The Infamous Bell Witch of Tennessee. Johnson City, Tennessee: The Overmountain Press. pp. 38–40. ISBN 978-1-57072-008-6.

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Next Episode

Horror and Other Things We Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock

It’s no secret that we are going through a new golden age of horror films. Horror movies have for the most part been critical and financial darlings. With some ending up on the top 10 lists across respectable publications covering a plethora of different concepts and topics from cult leaders to religious hysteria, aliens killing toddlers, demons killing toddles, toddlers killing parents. But What is horror? Is it fearing things that bump in the night? Is it the mourned howls of the dead that come with the wind. These have haunted the human consciousness as far back as we developed something called consciousness. The last two episode we tackled two topics that seem to predate written history: the unwelcome return of something beyond our senses. There is a theory that I have ascribed to. That everything we have achieved and have not achieved stems from the threat of death. The terror of death. From religion to sexual desire. The urge of facing death or cheating death seems to be as primal.

Does the fear of death drive us? The depiction of death in art has been around since the start of cave paintings to the movie screens. But did that constitute as horror?

Horror, as a term first appears in early 14th century, which means “feeling of disgust or sordid and vulgar”. And once Gothic Romanticism appeared in the late 18th century, the word horror showed up in prose. Where the term would get more of its modern meaning. In Robert Southey’s poem To Horror where he echoes his love to the eerie, Nathan Drake used the word interchangeably with disgust.

How did this word become associated with fear and how Horror movies for the most part have been shaped by our changes in society, culture, politics and technology but to understand the evolution of horror movies and monsters we are going to have to go back to the origins of the horror genre in films. on tonight’s episode we will be looking at horror films, how they highlighted and manifested our greatest fears.
Notes:-
How The Horror Genre Reflects Societal Fears Throughout Time
http://scribe.usc.edu/how-the-horror-genre-reflects-societal-fears-throughout-time/
HISTORICISM IN “THE SHINING” – BY FREDRIC JAMESON
https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/historicism-in-the-shining/
100 Years of Horror: Culture Shock: The Influence of History on Horror
https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/20853/100-years-of-horror-culture-shock-the-influence-of-history-on-horror/
Why the 1980s Is the Best Decade for Horror
https://www.thefilmagazine.com/why-1980s-horror-is-the-best/
How Horror Reflects Societal Fears
https://www.thereviewgeek.com/howhorrorreflectssocietalfears-article/

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A Conversation Before The World Ends - It's the Devil (The Story behind the Exorcist and Exorcisms)

Transcript

exorcisms

[00:00:00] Karim: Okay. Uh, listen, before we start though, do you think we could put that bit from, uh, The Exorcist as an intro or quote the quotes from the, What's the most famous quote from The Exorcist? I was drink

Nosis. But you think we could,

[00:00:16] Ayman: I know, like, I ain't, I Ain't Scared or no quote .

[00:00:19] Karim: Yeah, that's the From the Exorcist added. Yeah. Okay. Anybody have no po