Mental Illness and Demonic Possession.

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Anton Bruckner

Puritan Board Professor
Ok I am mulling over certain concepts. The mind is not the brain, but it interacts with the brain. The brain is not the mind, but it interacts with the mind. If this is so, the psychological and the physiological are two different entities. That being said, a person can have a physiological problem with the brain, i.e chemical imbalance, retardation, depression (purely from a physical point of view being dependent purely on the physical workings of the organ) and not have a psychological problem. Likewise a person can have a psychological problem, which then triggers certain reactions in the brain which then produces the chemical mixtures which result in mood and countenance. But this mood and countenance can be independent from psychological triggers and can be purely physiological, due to the different combinations of chemicals in the brain.

Now how is the above approached by the church. It seems that some Christians, including me at one point considered physiological and psychological problems in reference to the brain and mind to be totally opposed to Christian doctrine. heck, even the website Jesus-is-lord.com considers it demonic possession. Whereas a psychological problem are possessed by all, and only those with the perfect perspective in reference to God are without it, i.e Jesus. Many psychological problems can be rectified with the washing of the word. But that in itself is sanctification, and it is not ultimately reached until we are resurrected.

Now considering demonic possession. It seems strange that people were possessed with demons of which Jesus casted out these demons, and yet the Pharisees had no possessions, but committed the most wicked act. Therefore demonic possession in itself does not prove anything, unless there are different levels of it to group the pharisees as well as the Gadarene. Or it could be that demonic possession was solely a thing that occurred during the earthly life of the Messiah and the Apostles, of which the bounding of Satan signifies in the least a temporary end to these things. But what I would say is that the influence of demons has probably been limited to temptations, and blinding the eyes of unbelievers.

As per mental illness and demon possession, I am yet to see a correlation, since all have partially sanctified minds, hence all being imperfect, hence all have inconsistencies in their thought process some to the lesser and some to the more.
 
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