how to become an exorcist?

You just seem to think this is some sort of profession you can just take up like becoming a postman.


has info on it
www.goarch.org...

From the Orthodox theological point of view, the following can be considered exorcists:

Christ is the exorcist par excellence for it is He who won the victory over the power of the devil.

Priests in the performance of the holy sacraments and in preaching the word of God follow Christ's example.

All Orthodox Christians are exorcists as they struggle against personal sin and social evil. In fact, "the whole Church, past, present and future, has the task of an exorcist to banish sin, evil, injustice, spiritual death, the devil from the life of humanity." Archbishop Iakovos, in a sermon at the Sage Chapel, Cornell University, spoke on exorcism in the following manner: "Both healing and exorcising are ministered through prayers, which spring from faith in God and from love for man.... All the prayers of healing and exorcism, composed by the Fathers of the Church and in use since the third century, begin with the solemn declaration: In Thy Name, O Lord.' " (Exorcism and Exorcists in the Greek Orthodox Tradition, March 10, 1974.)

Since the fourth century the place of the exorcist, as well as other functions and ministries, have been taken over by the priest.

Looks like you can say a few prayers to someone possessed in church and be an "exocist" then. Or train as a priest and deal with all the hardcore possessions. Only took 1 min to locate. Doesnt sound like you are willing to train as a priest and devote your life to god just so you can look cool like keanu reaves or whatever his name is. I am sure being an exorcist is highly stressful and there is the chance of death whether trough stress, or being attacked by a possessed person. I dont know what othodox priests have to sacrifice to become them but are you willing to earn a minimum wage? possibility of no family? if family is allowed little financial security for your children (due to low wage)?

Maybe discuss priesthood with your church leader?

Im not being rude just pointing out you kind of think this is something you can just pick up.

[edit on 1-6-2006 by The Herbaliser]

As someone who has done and seen exorcisms, I can tell you without any hesitation that you do not want to become an exorcist. If you do, you completely misunderstand what you are getting yourself into, and you could get yourself hurt.

It is the most viseral, terrifying, irrational, and horrible experience you will ever have, and not something one seeks out. If you are, you are simply looking to do something "cool" or that you think is "neat", and you lack the humility, and understanding of what you're getting yourself into.

I'm not trying to be condescending. Before it happened to me, I remember thinking similar things. I'm just trying to help you not make the same mistakes I did. This is not something anyone should "want" to get involved with. Try focusing on the positive aspects of your religious beliefs (your faith, your understanding, and your relationship with God) rather than the negative ones (the devil, possession, sin, and hate).

[edit on 1-6-2006 by Athenion]

Originally posted by Athenion
As someone who has done and seen exorcisms, I can tell you without any hesitation that you do not want to become an exorcist. If you do, you completely misunderstand what you are getting yourself into, and you could get yourself hurt.

It is the most viseral, terrifying, irrational, and horrible experience you will ever have, and not something one seeks out. If you are, you are simply looking to do something "cool" or that you think is "neat", and you lack the humility, and understanding of what you're getting yourself into.

I'm not trying to be condescending. Before it happened to me, I remember thinking similar things. I'm just trying to help you not make the same mistakes I did. This is not something anyone should "want" to get involved with. Try focusing on the positive aspects of your religious beliefs (your faith, your understanding, and your relationship with God) rather than the negative ones (the devil, possession, sin, and hate).

[edit on 1-6-2006 by Athenion]

Well then afterall I guess I changed my mind and do not want to be an exorcist lol.

Thanks for the advices everyone.

stay well away from those sort of things, anyway you may not know the difference between a mental illness and a posessed person. so why bother.

even most priests do not want to know about such things.

Yeah, one of the biggest problems is what to do with the demons after you convince them to leave the person they're inhabiting. Jesus H. Christ and his people were all about demons and exorcism, and he made the demons go into a bunch of pigs and ran them off a cliff.

So maybe it would be helpful to get some pigs.

Originally posted by Athenion


It is the most viseral, terrifying, irrational, and horrible experience you will ever have...

You've apparently never had to sit through a Condi Rice speech before.

On a side note, I was just reading about Scientology on another thread, and after looking through this one, had an idea. The Scientologists have "body thetans" from Xenu; the Christians have "demons" from the devil. The Scientologists practice "auditing", the Christians practice "exorcism". Are they, deep down, really the same thing, and is it just self-delusion?

Well, it's an interesting theory. I've read a lot about psychology (I'm a Jungian of sorts) and I can tell you that my understanding of psychology can't explain some of the stuff I saw.

But regardless, you could take the idea you had in two ways. In addition to Scientology and Christianity, most major religions have a belief in possession of sorts, Zorostrians, Islam, Judaism, Shamanic Cultures, etc. So this could be indicative of two things, only one of which can be true:

#1 - Demonic possession is a very real phenomena, and religions have established their own explanation and "cure" for this type of event.

#2 - As you say, it is a purely imagined event; most likely a mislabel given to a serious phsychological disorder, such as schizophrenia, psychosis, dissasociative identity disorder, etc.

And honestly, I don't think there is enough evidence to indicate which of these two is an absolute truth, so the viewer will be more inclined to agree with whichever is more closely aligned with their belief system.

For example, I'm a Mormon, and have seen some messed up stuff that my logical brain cannot explain away. For me, #1 makes the most sense.

But if I were an atheist, or agnostic, I could easily see how #2 would make much more sense. Truth is quite often in the eye of the beholder.

I know this is a old post, but it really interested me.

Catholic preists usually carry a medal of St. Benedict on them,blessed of course. St. Benedict was known to do many miricles in the name of the Cross,including exorcisms. So usually during the rites and all, they carry them somewhere on their person for protection. Many catholics carry one on them for the same reason, protection from Evil or spells....

That and Latin always seems to be a big thing in the traditional catholic church and the exocism rites.

okay this is a long shot but i think i am an exorcist (in my dreams, rather)
i have been having dreams lately where i am exorcising demons and i was speaking latin (i cant speak latin, but still recited the "exorcism proper" even though i have never seen it)
check out my forum about it, i have all of my dreams posted there.

I suggest one not become involved in it at all. I have been working with spirit forms for some 30 years. I retain both the older and newer catholic ritual, the modern Christian ritual as well as the Mystic ritual in my manual of exorcism. I retain all of the tools for each type as well as supplies for each.

This is not some kiddie game or movie fantasy garbage. Stay Away! Do not get involved. Period. No more than I would have some bubba make fireworks in his garage would I even be around someone that thinks they want to be an exorcist.

A carefully guarded secret is that over 40 RC exorcists have died in the performance of the duty in this century alone. Many exorcist die in the RC process
though it is covered up as much as possible.

Don't get involved.

Originally posted by Jedi 007
I was wondering if you can become an exorcist but not being a priest? Just be a simple man who has authority and knowledge to perform an exorcism. Any thoughts?

Being a priest doesn't make you an exorcist. You'd need to learn the origin of the demoinc forces to understand what it is you're dealing with and how to deal with it and such rules of the game. You'd also need understandings about the truth of God.

Example: There is NO war between "God" and any evil force. Such an understanding is a misconseption. It's a game evil forces would play with your mind.

Evil doesn't believe in God.
God isn't touchable by evil.

One has a good argument that exorcists are all but unneeded in these days because most of the demonic forces have been cleaned up throught the changing of the spiritual powers over this planet.