SkinWalker said:
I don't expect intelligent responses that are dignified with critical thought from those that have their beliefs challenged.
None of my beliefs have been challenged by your posts, simply because you misunderstood everything I said. I have not made a single claim that spirits exist or that they explain the subjective experience of possession.
Experience has shown me that, when faced with rational thought and inquiry, the believer (be it in religious superstition, demons, ghosts, ufos, esp, etc) will respond with much the same "I'm right because you're wrong" attitude.
How could I have said you were wrong when you didn't even address my points?
The bottom line is, you cannot point to any peer-reviewed validation for "demon possession" because it is a concept that exists only in the fabricated reality of those that believe in it.
Just look at your own reply. Whoever said anything about demons? You are reading stuff that was never written, because you assume anyone wanting to discuss a subject outside of a scientific framework must necessarily be a superstitious fool.
Far more rational explanations are arrived at whenever those that claim to be afflicted are examined.
If you had the decency of reading my posts, you wouldn't say such beside-the-point nonsense. If you find yourself afflicted with a mental disorder, the last thing you'd care about would be a rational explanation. Telling schizophrenics that there's a rational explanation for their hallucinations doesn't make them go away or even seem less real.
I know your position. It's the position of someone who doesn't understand what he is talking about, for the simple fact that you never experienced it. It's very easy to understand schizophrenia if you're not schizophrenic. Your explanations don't have to convince the mentally ill, they only have to convince your academic peers.
Explanations that very often find themselves cured with therapy or medication.
It is true that medication often helps people recover from mental disorders, I have not even hinted otherwise and have no idea why you bring it up. I myself am epileptic, and if it weren't for medication I would be having seizures on a daily basis. Still, I know things about epilepsy which my doctor cannot possibly know, except perhaps if he is also epileptic. For instance, when I recover from a seizure I have this overwhelming sense of foreboding, as if the world were about to end in the next few hours. I know the feeling is unreal, and that has nothing to do with the existence of peer-reviewed literature proving that the world is not going to end in the next few hours. But an argument like yours, that my feeling of foreboding is irrational, is arrogant and completely beside the point.
You probably won't understand any of this, as usual.
