Teen Exorcist Squad!

I missed this story when it came out back in August, but it's just too good to pass up. Evangelist Bob Larson of Spiritual Freedom Churches International runs a school for exorcists, where students are taught to break curses and cast out demons. After discovering that his own 16-year-old daughter Brynne, pictured on the far right, was a gifted exorcist he went on to train four other teenage girls with similar talents, and claims them to be particularly effective at the art of overcoming demonic possession. So I suppose the teen exorcist squad is kind of like what Charlie's Angels would be if Charlie was a total douchebag.

The Vatican’s chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, has revealed that he alone has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession. So if the forces of darkness start getting the upper hand, who should you call? Evangelist Reverend Bob Larson of Spiritual Freedom Churches International - and his remarkable school for exorcists.

‘Think of it more of an exorcist franchise,’ Rev Larson tells MailOnline exclusively. ‘The Church just can’t keep up with demand. But I have 100 teams of trained exorcists working all over the world, and outbreaks of demonic possession are getting out of control. ‘Our phone lines are ringing constantly - we receive up to 1,000 individual requests monthly, and we travel to countries like Africa, Ukraine, England and even Australia.’

But while his teams include exorcists aged up to 70, one group of his protégées are causing waves in the religious community. They are teenage girls. Savannah Scherkenback, 19, and her sister Tess, 16, are Rev Larson’s latest graduates from his school for exorcists. ‘We have found that our female, teenage exorcists are particularly effective at curing the possessed,’ says Rev Larson, whose daughter Brynne is a supernaturally talented exorcist.

So why do I say douchebag, you ask? I've written on exorcism before and believe it to be a legitimate ritual practice, and there's no reason to think that these girls couldn't be genuinely good at it. The trouble is Larson himself.

Teen Exorcist Squad: The Movie!

I suppose it was inevitable. The Teen Exorcist Squad is now the subject of a new documentary film from Vice. The teen exorcists themselves are attractive, telegenic, and engaged in an activity that most people find truly weird, which makes them a perfect subject for a documentary. One wonders how Werner Herzog would treat this material, and if he did, my guess is that his narration alone would be worth the price of admission.

One of the most glaring aspects of the film, noted by Jezebel, is how obsessed with sexuality modern Evangelical Christians are. Apparently any sort of sexual activity, volutary or otherwise, exposes you to the dangers of demonic possession. If that were really true, I imagine that the human race would have died out long before now - because, you know, sexuality is how we reproduce. Furthermore, given the number of sexual acts going on in the world at any one time, if this "risk" were anything other than infinitesimal our entire species would almost certainly be completely infested. The Jezebel article quotes the following from the film:

"Satan can't just go into anybody that he wants to. He has to have a legal right."

You can catch demons from having sex with prostitutes.

You can catch demons from being sexually abused.

Teen exorcists stay away from things like Harry Potter, witchcraft, violence, Twilight (mostly because the storyline is "not attractive at all"), really scary horror movies, and "sexual stuff."

Well, I can't fault them for disliking Twilight. That series is just awful and suggests that there might be something to the Mormon religion, as I can't imagine how a writer as bad and unknown as Stephanie Meyer could have gotten such a huge book contract short of divine intervention. It should also be pointed out that the obsession with sexuality is a lot newer than one might expect. The Puritans of the seventeenth century, for example, are commonly cited as an example of a sexually repressive form of Christianity. However, they were in fact much more open about sexuality than the form of Christianity practiced by the teen exorcists and preached by their spiritual leader, Bob Larson.

The Demon Test

Bob Larson thinks you might have a demon. Seriously. Evangelist Larson first made a name for himself stirring up false accusations of Satanic Ritual Abuse back in the early 1990's and soliciting donations to combat this non-existent threat. More recently Larson assembled the Teen Exorcist Squad and now has an online test you can take to find out if you "have a demon." I went to take the test just for the humor value, but true to Larson's money-grubbing form just taking it costs ten bucks. So forget that.

You would think that this would be less transparently a scam, that the test would be free but then recommend various "services" after concluding you in fact have a demon that Larson's squad can deal with for a nominal or more likely not-so-nominal fee. But I suppose the profit margin is better for his organization if even the test has a price attached. Clearly churches that conduct counseling and exorcisms for free are in the wrong business. According to the web site, here's what you can do if the test finds you to be afflicted.

#1 Consider visiting our Center for Spiritual Freedom in Phoenix, Arizona to spend a full or half day with me personally for an Intervention Intensive. We'll carefully address a wide range of spiritual issues, including anxiety, emotional exhaustion, anger management, rejection and abandonment issues, health challenges, and spiritual oppression.

#2 Attend one of our Spiritual Freedom Seminars in selected cities (our latest schedule is at www.boblarson.org) and arrange for a one-hour Encounter session. We'll help you find direction in life and quickly get to the root of whatever is holding back your health, finances, or relationships.

#3 Receive a referral from one of our DWJD® (Do What Jesus Did) inner healing and deliverance teams, located in more than 100 cities worldwide. They will arrange a time to meet with you and minister to your spiritual needs.

Drunken Exorcism?

I never thought I would come across an exorcism story that would make me wish the Teen Exorcist Squad was performing it instead of the actual would-be exorcist, but I suppose there's a first time for everything. A Florida man was recently arrested for performing a two-day exorcism on his girlfriend while so drunk he later claimed not to remember any of it.

The alleged exorcism began on Monday when Benes held down his girlfriend and tried “to get the devil out of her.” He then took the batteries out of her phone to keep her from calling for help. After, he took her car keys and “dismantled” the garage to prevent it from opening. Then, somehow, the victim fell asleep.

When she woke the next morning, the alleged exorcism began again and when the authorities arrived (the woman somehow managed to call 911), they found the bruised and scratched woman sitting outside the home crying. Benes was on the couch and “too drunk to remember what happened.” He then told the officers his girlfriend started the fight because “she is crazy.”

Kudos to police for getting this drunken exorcist off the street. He sounds like a deeply stupid and abusive fellow, not to mention a problem alcoholic with the blackouts and all. One wonders what on earth prompted him to think he would be able to perform an effective exorcism in the first place.

Bob Larson Uses Koetting's FX Guy

Since there doesn't appear to be a civil war going on outside my door, today I'm going to spend some time making fun of Bob Larson. Remember him? He's the evangelical exorcist known for creating the Teen Exorcist Squad and conducting exorcisms via Skype. Back in the 1980's and early 1990's, Larson's show was broadcast here in Minnesota and he was one of the loudest voices denouncing "Satanic Ritual Abuse," a moral panic that revolved around made-up practices of made-up Satanists who never did anything that made much sense to us real practicing occultists.

In the Bob Larson universe, just about anything fun has to do with demons. Dungeons & Dragons? Demons. Rock music? Demons. Making fun of Bob Larson? Demons. So I guess that makes Augoeides pretty darn infernal right now. I'll be sure to inform the angels and other celestial spirits that I work with on a regular basis. And anything that had to do with demons got you possessed, because that's how it works. After all, there's no such thing as mental illness. It's all caused by demons, and fortunately Larson is an exorcist so he has the cure - you know, for a reasonable donation to his ministry.

At any rate, what I find so laughable about the above video is not the video itself, but the ridiculous low-budget special effects that go along with it. Remember E. A. Koetting's video where he's out in the desert and you see low budget CGI lightning and colored filters that are supposed to be "magick?" Well, here Larson is doing the same darn thing. I have no idea if Brenda, the woman in the video, has mental health issues or is just playing along. But she's not possessed by a demon. Have you ever watched video of ATR rituals where people are actually possessed by spirits? Let's just say they don't walk around acting all normal and we'll leave it at that. They also don't turn the room red or "burn" with bad CGI flames.

At some point I'm considering doing some of my own magick videos, and I'm left wondering if I have to do this too to "keep up with the Joneses," or at least keep up with the Larsons and Koettings. Even though I have mad skills with Microsoft Paint, I would have to track down something similar for videos. You know, something that would let me add a possum head to a picture of Bigfoot in real time, not just in the one photo. I'm kind of hoping that's not the case, though, because let's face it - these effects are cheesy as hell.

Exorcism Online

Here's the latest innovation in exorcism from Teen Exorcist Squad leader Reverend Bob Larson - exorcism via Skype. Never one to pass up an opportunity to take on a demon in exchange for donations to his ministry, Larson takes advantage of the video chat application to perform exorcisms all over the world without those pesky travel expenses. There's no word yet on whether he performs all of the online exorcisms himself, or if he passes some of them off to members of his squad.

The idea of using Skype came from a Scottsdale reverend Bob Larson who claims that thanks to Skype he can take a crack at demons all over the world. So far he claims to have banished 20,000 demons to his nether regions, unless we heard him wrong. We guess that some of those demons would have been doubling up, as demons sometimes share bodies to avoid paying council tax.

Larson said that exorcism is the process of expelling an evil spirit from an individual who has become somehow invaded and demonised by that being, and sending it back to hell and freeing the person. It is not clear how it would work over Skype. While you don't have to worry about flying beds, it is really tricky to spray holy water in anything's face over the net. Your video can also be disturbed by puke splatter.

Despite the tongue-in-cheek commentary, the article does raise a valid point. Magick performed remotely is always going be less effective than magick performed in person, simply because the link to the target is not as strong. Back in the early days of the Internet a number of chaos magicians tried to do group rituals over chat, and the ones that I followed back then proved pretty ineffective - though I'll grant there may be somebody who figured out how to make it work and then never released their findings. It's also the reason that astral initiations may do something, but not nearly as much as real temple initiations done in the physical presence of officers.

My guess is that Larson is falling back on the classic scripture that in Jesus' name all things are possible, the usual Christian explanation for why they expect poorly constructed spiritual technology to function. There's always the possibility that he has come up with a novel method that will prove effective, but given his history and background I highly doubt it.

Know Your Trade

Half the folks on the blogosphere have been all over this one already, but in the interest of completeness I'm going to chime in on the latest exploits of the Teen Exorcist Squad, who are now heading to the UK for some serious demon-bashing across the pond. On the heels of their recent documentary, the squad is now filming a reality television series covering their efforts to drive Satan and his supposed minions from the world. According to the exorcists, Britain is apparently rife with demonic activity because of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.

"Every single country has a specific kind of demon," says Tess, 18, who loves music and reading. They believe that the UK in particular is a hotbed for "witchcraft", because of the popularity of J K Rowling's Harry Potter books.

"The spells and things that you're reading in the Harry Potter books, those aren't just something that are made up, those are actual spells. Those are things that came from witchcraft books," says Tess.

There's a whole lot to mock in the article, but for once I'm going to play this one completely straight and ask a simple competency question. If your exorcists don't know the difference between fake spells and real ones, what makes you think they know anything about real demon possession, or for that matter how to properly perform an exorcism? If I were interviewing a computer programmer who claimed to have developed software for WOPR (the fictional military computer system from the film Wargames) or Gibson mainframes (from the film Hackers), I would know they were lying their asses off and would never hire them in a million years.

Apparently nobody subjects exorcists to this same level of scrutiny, though they probably should before spending any money on their services.

Roman Catholic Church Seeks Exorcists

It sounds like the Roman Catholic Church wants to get in on more of the exorcism action. At a recent conference in Rome, 250 more priests were trained in the ancient art of casting out the devil. It only makes sense that the denomination that preserved the Rite of Exorcism from antiquity would never leave it to the likes of the Teen Exorcist Squad, who make doing battle with the forces of evil look a little too much like a day at the mall. But the reasoning of the conference organizers leaves something to be desired. Apparently, they believe that some substantial portion of non-religious people practice magick.

The conference, “Exorcism and Prayers of Liberation”, has also attracted psychiatrists, sociologists, doctors and criminologists in what the Church called a “multi-disciplinary” approach to exorcisms.

Giuseppe Ferrari, from GRIS, a Catholic research group that organised the conference, said there was an ever growing need for priests to be trained to perform exorcisms because of the increasing number of lay people tempted to dabble in black magic, paganism and the occult.

“We live in a disenchanted society, a secularised world that thought it was being emancipated, but where religion is being thrown out, the window is being opened to superstition and irrationality,” said Mr Ferrari.

The abandonment of religion “inevitably leads people to ask questions about the existence of evil and its origins”, he told Adnkronos, an Italian news agency. About 250 priests were trained as exorcists in Italy, but many more were needed, the conference organisers claimed.

All this shows me is that Ferrari doesn't know any actual secular atheists. What's so silly about his statements is that hardly any of the atheists I know even believe in the paranormal, let alone practice occultism, and most occultists I know are religious in some fashion. Often they're Thelemites or Pagans of some sort (and to be fair, Paganism does get a mention up there), but a few of them are even Christian. It's hard to see how Ferrari could have missed that if he spends any time on the Internet. The most vocal atheists are so smug about how rational and free of superstition they are that they would never cast a spell to save their lives - or for that matter have anything to do with an exorcist.

Not That Kind of Chiropractor

Maybe it's just me, but in my experience chiropractors do things like spinal adjustments. I have yet to meet one who performed exorcisms, but apparently that's because I don't live in Iowa. A chiropractor there recently lost his license for performing exorcisms on patients and treating them in exchange for sex. I suppose it's good work if you can get it. Lately it seems like everyone is getting in on the exorcism game, from the Roman Catholic Church declaring war on sexy vampires and Bob Larsen's Teen Exorcist Squad keeping busy.

An Iowa chiropractor is out of business after authorities busted him for performing exorcisms and treating patients in exchange for sex.

Charles Manuel surrendered his license but could apply to get it back in 10 years as part of a settlement reached with the Iowa Board of Chiropractors reached in March.

The board had accused the southern Iowa-based chiropractor of "unethical conduct…engaging in practice harmful or detrimental to the public," and "practicing outside the scope of the profession" in the settlement obtained on April 15 by The Des Moines Register.

Yeah, that sounds about right. I have no idea what chiropractic and exorcism have to do with each other, which brings to mind two distinct possibilities. Either Manuel is a fraud and charged people for performing some sort of ritual he knew was bogus, or he believed in what he was doing but decided that it was easy enough that it required little training.

Actually, a lot of the training that exorcists get in the Roman Catholic Church, for example, has nothing to do with the ritual itself, but rather has to do with discerning an actual spirit attack from mental illness or a myriad of other problems that can be addressed by more conventional means. That's because like any other spiritual technology, an exorcism doesn't address physical issues. And, since spirit attacks are relatively rare, most of the time they aren't the cause of the subject's problems.

It's possible that I'm being a little unfair here, since I know nothing about Manuel other than this news story. Maybe he's a totally amazing exorcist who also happens to know how to do adjustments. But the whole "treating patients for sex" thing doesn't fill me with confidence in his abilities.

Ted Cruz Exorcized

Back in February, Ted Cruz was accosted by a man who claimed that the Texas senator was possessed by a demon and needed an exorcism. Then, just last week, former Speaker of the House John Boehner described Cruz as "Lucifer in the flesh." Boehner was (most likely) speaking metaphorically, but Satanists still condemned his remarks, claiming that comparing Cruz to Lucifer was insulting to Lucifer.

Whether or not Cruz really needed that exorcism, last night in Indiana he was exorcized from the race for the Republican presidential nomination. After a big loss to Donald Trump, who still seems to be totally-not-hexed, the Texas senator suspended his campaign for the nomination. Barring something completely unexpected, Cruz' exit from the race means that Trump will be the Republican nominee.

Now just in case the Texas senator does find himself in need of an actual exorcism, last week a reporter from The Washington Post contacted practicing exorcist and Teen Exorcist Squad leader Bob Larson to find out how he would go about doing it.

"I would treat him no differently than I would treat anyone else," Larson said. (He intimated that he'd dealt with political leaders — including some I'd be familiar with — but he declined to name names.)

When presented with someone who friends or family think may be possessed, Larson first ensures that the person has seen a therapist or doctor — tried, in other words, to eliminate all potential medical and psychological causes for the person's behavior.

If all of that has occurred, he then tries to figure out why the person might have been possessed. "People don't just become possessed because they have a bad hair day," he said. "They become possessed because something evil has happened either transgenerationally or in their life." The next round of questions centers on what type of evil acts the possessed person has committed or have had committed to them, and how the person had dealt with those issues, if at all.

Next? "Once you know there was the right of an evil spirit to enter," Larson said, "then the question is whether they are the true host of a spirit or just somehow tormented. And to do that, you demand to speak to the spirit and call the spirit forth. And it either comes or it doesn't."

What really surprised me about Cruz' performance in the Republican primaries is that, to my knowledge, he was the first openly Christian Reconstructionist candidate to seek public office, and he was rejected by a substantial percentage of evangelical Christians. Many of them went for Trump, a Presbyterian who for the most part is not even running as a religious conservative.

Maybe it's just because Cruz is so darn unlikeable and clearly uncomfortable acting like a normal human being, but it could also imply that even the "evangelical" block of Christianity is not nearly as politically monolithic as some of their public statements make them sound. It seems that there are quite a few of them out there who are perfectly happy to reject Theocracy as a form of government, even if such a government would mean rule by their religion.

Pope's Blood Stolen by Satanists?

Recently a reliquary containing the blood of Pope John Paul II was stolen from a church in Italy. Unsurprisingly, the coordinator of an anti-occult group has blamed "Satanists," and in the process revealed himself to be completely ignorant on the subject of the occult. Here's what I want to know - why does it seem like every single anti-occult group out there has no idea how occultism actually works? You would think that if they were serious, they would sit down and study the subject so that they could make informed statements.

“It’s possible that there could be Satanic sects behind the theft of the reliquary,” said Giovanni Panunzio, the national coordinator of an anti-occult group called Osservatorio Antiplagio.

“This period of the year is important in the Satanic calendar and culminates in the Satanic ‘new year’ on Feb 1. This sort of sacrilege often take place at this time of the year. We hope that the stolen items are recovered as quickly as possible.”

The theft of the reliquary comes as the Vatican prepares to canonise John Paul II, along with another former Pope, John XXIII, at a ceremony on April 27.

Here's the ignorant bit. There's no evidence, anywhere, for a "Satanic New Year" falling on February 1st. You can find a thorough compilation of the dates named as "Satanic holidays" by various authors here. According to the list, Teen Exorcist Squad leader Bob Larson did name Oimelc, celebrated on February 1st, as a Satanic holiday, but as usual he's simply confused. Oimelc is a Pagan holiday, and Larson is well-known for conflating Paganism and Satanism. Furthermore, even for Pagans, Oimelc is not the "New Year." So it's hard to see where Panunzio is getting his information. I suspect he's just making it up as he goes along.

Hazards of Massage Therapists

Silly me! I was under the impression that when you go to a massage therapist all you leave with is relaxed muscles. But leave it my Facebook feed to set me straight. It seems that a visit to the massage therapist can result in demonic possession. I wonder if that's what happened to the yoga guy from Friday's post. I imagine that demons probably enjoy throwing dead animals more than the rest of us.

~~~ MASSAGE THERAPISTS ~~~
Going to a massage therapist however innocent, for therapy or just for a relaxing thing to do with your girlfriends or hubby/guy friend....can transfer demons present in them, unto you! If they are practicing witches or using witchcraft, new age techniques in any way, it is an open door to receive this most deadly spirit of witchcraft, not to mention all the other demons they may carry! It's a "laying on of hands"!!! It's an open door to Satan to attack you! Believe me....this is how our family was infected years ago when my mother went for massage treatments to bring her womb up into position so she could conceive. The result....every demon that was in that woman was transferred unto her! Yes she became pregnant but the child ended up demon possessed! Those demons were transferred then unto the rest of us...destroyed our family!!! Thus God brought me through 12 yrs of spiritual warfare to break those curses...to rid us of all the demons and bring us out of the curse.....I minister to people all the time who have picked up demons from the massage therapist!..SO ONLY GO IF YOU COVER YOURSELF WITH ANOINTING OIL FIRST....OVER YOUR WHOLE BODY, ASK FORGIVENESS OF SINS BEFORE YOU GO IN AND FORBID SATAN TO TRANSFER ANY DEMONS FROM THEM TO YOU!!! ALSO BREAK ALL SOUL TIES WITH WHOMEVER GAVE YOU THE MASSAGE! IF YOU DON'T KNOW THEIR NAME..... SAY....THE ONE WHO WORKED ON ME TODAY LORD WEARING THE BLUE SHIRT (OR WHATEVER)

It would be interesting to see a real clinical study of this supposed case, since I have a hard time believing anybody who goes in for a massage really gets infected with demons, at least not the sort I'm familiar with. This just seems like more of the paranoia about the modern world that seems to infect certain fundamentalists. But maybe I'm wrong, and there really is a whole class of massage demons created by Satan for the express purpose of afflicting massage therapists. If so, given the popularity of massage the Teen Exorcist Squad really has their work cut out for them.

Mental Illness Versus Spirit Possession

In some of my previous posts, I've pointed out that the Roman Catholic Church has strict guidelines for performing exorcisms. Before a paranormal cause can even be considered, all normal causes such as mental illness must be ruled out. So how do they do they do that, since priests are not necessarily experts on mental health? That question was answered by this recent article from the Washington Post. It turns out the answer is fairly prosaic - they work with psychiatrists.

What's not so prosaic, though, is that the author of the article, psychiatrist Richard Gallagher, has seen a handful of cases that defy explanation and seem to point to some sort of paranormal agency. On that basis, he concludes that possession is a rare phenomenon, but it does exist. He probably would be the person to ask, too. In more than twenty years working with the church, he has probably reviewed more potential cases than almost anyone else.

For the past two-and-a-half decades and over several hundred consultations, I’ve helped clergy from multiple denominations and faiths to filter episodes of mental illness — which represent the overwhelming majority of cases — from, literally, the devil’s work. It’s an unlikely role for an academic physician, but I don’t see these two aspects of my career in conflict. The same habits that shape what I do as a professor and psychiatrist — open-mindedness, respect for evidence and compassion for suffering people — led me to aid in the work of discerning attacks by what I believe are evil spirits and, just as critically, differentiating these extremely rare events from medical conditions.

Is it possible to be a sophisticated psychiatrist and believe that evil spirits are, however seldom, assailing humans? Most of my scientific colleagues and friends say no, because of their frequent contact with patients who are deluded about demons, their general skepticism of the supernatural, and their commitment to employ only standard, peer-reviewed treatments that do not potentially mislead (a definite risk) or harm vulnerable patients. But careful observation of the evidence presented to me in my career has led me to believe that certain extremely uncommon cases can be explained no other way.

For the most part I agree with Gallagher based on my own experiences, though I do think that the church's theology is overly simplistic. Every spirit in the universe is not either a "demon" in league with Satan or an "angel" in league with God. The real world is far less Manichean than that. In my experience there are as many classes of spirits as there are people - though I expect the sort of spirit that would take over a person's body without their consent and not give it up probably could reasonably described as "evil," or at the very least, harmful and dangerous.

Not Something You See Every Day

These folks are definitely not the Teen Exorcist Squad. But police were surprised when they were called to a public park on a disturbance and found a Texas couple performing what appeared to be an exorcism on a third woman, who was being held on the ground while the couple demanded that Satan depart from her.

“They start getting louder and louder and louder, she was on the ground and they were standing over her with hands on her and screaming Satan I demand that you depart and it went on and on and on, but it was very bizarre!” said one bystander who noticed the religious ritual being performed in public at Memorial Gardens Park.

Police who arrived at the scene said their hands were tied because exorcisms are not against the law and no one was injured. According to witnesses, the three people were sitting on a park bench speaking before the exorcism commenced. One woman, who reads her Bible in the park, said the three got right into it with few formalities beforehand, disrupting her from her daily ritual.

This would probably qualify as assault or something similar if the woman being exorcised decided to press charges, but it sounds like she declined to do so - which makes it totally legal. Just totally weird, at least the way a lot of evangelicals do it. Instead of an actual ritual, there's a lot of yelling at Satan kind of like what you would see in a horror film.

There's no word on whether the exorcism worked, and the names of the participants have not been released so there's no way to follow up. I just hope that the woman got what she was looking for from the experience.

Cracking Down on "Irregular Exorcisms"

The practice of exorcism is on the rise. In May, the Roman Catholic Church held a conference to train 250 new exorcists. According to organizers, more exorcists are needed because of the rise of atheism and secular humanism, which by some poorly articulated and utterly implausible mechanism leads to more people dabbling with the occult. But more exorcists means more exorcisms, and that brings its own set of problems.

Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, the Archbishop of Florence, recently delivered a missive to the priests of Tuscany reminding them of the strict procedures that exorcists are required to follow. According to church policy, before an exorcism can be performed the subject must pass a complex series of tests designed to exclude mental illness or any other mundane explanation for their symptoms. Apparently, some priests in the region have been disregarding this rule.

Around 15 official exorcisms have been conducted in Tuscany in recent years, according to the local press. However, dozens more have been performed without the say-so of church authorities, and the number of cases is increasing, prompting Cardinal Betori and the regional Bishops Conference to write to priests reminding them of their obligations.

The missive included the 20-year-old pastoral guidelines on dealing with demons and black magic, entitled “Regarding magic and demonology”, and called on priests to pay heed to the section headed “Exorcisms and healing prayers… pastoral rules and recommendations”.

A diocesan source quoted by La Nazione newspaper said: “Some priests, with the best intentions, are making themselves available to listen to these people and sometimes perform exorcisms on them in a way that is not permitted, not regular and not co-ordinated.”

Italy’s brutal and lingering recession has been blamed for a rise in mental health problems, which, the report says, might be confused with possession by some people.

Adherence to these protocols should be very important to representatives of the church, since they constitute the main difference between Roman Catholic exorcists and fly-by-night "demon busters" like the Teen Exorcist Squad who will, for example, happily conduct exorcisms over Skype at the drop of a hat - and, of course, for a "suggested donation."

I personally work with spirits and don't consider exorcism nonsense - it's one of the last remnants of real ceremonial magick left in the Christian tradition, and the practice of exorcism has a history that predates the Christian religion. However, genuine unwanted spiritual possession is rare, and mental illness is far more common. Hopefully exorcists will heed this missive and save their methods for those who really require them.