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Demons?
#95
RE: Demons?

Quote:Father Zosima, on entering the portico, went first straight to the peasants who were crowded at the foot of the three steps that led up into the portico. Father Zosima stood on the top step, put on his stole, and began blessing the women who thronged about him. One crazy woman was led up to him. As soon as she caught sight of the elder she began shrieking and writhing as though in the pains of childbirth. Laying the stole on her forehead, he read a short prayer over her, and she was at once soothed and quieted.

I do not know how it may be now, but in my childhood I often happened to see and hear these ‘possessed’ women in the villages and monasteries. They used to be brought to mass; they would squeal and bark like a dog so that they were heard all over the church. But when the sacrament was carried in and they were led up to it, at once the ‘possession’ ceased, and the sick women were always soothed for a time. I was greatly impressed and amazed at this as a child; but then I heard from country neighbors and from my town teachers that the whole illness was simulated to avoid work, and that it could always be cured by suitable severity; various anecdotes were told to confirm this. But later on I learnt with astonishment from medical specialists that there is no pretence about it, that it is a terrible illness to which women are subject, especially prevalent among us in Russia, and that it is due to the hard lot of the peasant women. It is a disease, I was told, arising from exhausting toil too soon after hard, abnormal and unassisted labor in childbirth, and from the hopeless misery, from beatings, and so on, which some women were not able to endure like others. The strange and instant healing of the frantic and struggling woman as soon as she was led up to the holy sacrament, which had been explained to me as due to malingering and the trickery of the ‘clericals,’ arose probably in the most natural manner. Both the women who supported her and the invalid herself fully believed as a truth beyond question that the evil spirit in possession of her could not hold if the sick woman were brought to the sacrament and made to bow down before it. And so, with a nervous and psychically deranged woman, a sort of convulsion of the whole organism always took place, and was bound to take place, at the moment of bowing down to the sacrament, aroused by the expectation of the miracle of healing and the implicit belief that it would come to pass; and it did come to pass, though only for a moment. It was exactly the same now as soon as the elder touched the sick woman with the stole.

— Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, published 1880.



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Messages In This Thread
Demons? - by Nine - January 8, 2014 at 12:11 pm
RE: Demons? - by Wunsbee - January 8, 2014 at 12:14 pm
RE: Demons? - by Nine - January 8, 2014 at 12:33 pm
RE: Demons? - by Wunsbee - January 8, 2014 at 12:42 pm
RE: Demons? - by Tonus - February 11, 2014 at 12:54 pm
RE: Demons? - by c172 - January 8, 2014 at 12:15 pm
RE: Demons? - by NoraBrimstone - January 8, 2014 at 7:45 pm
RE: Demons? - by ShaMan - January 8, 2014 at 7:50 pm
RE: Demons? - by ElleBelle - January 8, 2014 at 8:44 pm
RE: Demons? - by Minimalist - January 8, 2014 at 8:46 pm
RE: Demons? - by Polaris - January 8, 2014 at 8:48 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 8, 2014 at 8:54 pm
RE: Demons? - by Sinnersburninhell100 - January 8, 2014 at 9:09 pm
RE: Demons? - by Jackalope - January 8, 2014 at 9:20 pm
RE: Demons? - by truthBtold - January 8, 2014 at 9:11 pm
RE: Demons? - by truthBtold - January 8, 2014 at 9:14 pm
RE: Demons? - by Napoléon - January 8, 2014 at 9:20 pm
RE: Demons? - by truthBtold - January 8, 2014 at 9:29 pm
RE: Demons? - by Napoléon - January 9, 2014 at 12:32 pm
RE: Demons? - by Sinnersburninhell100 - January 8, 2014 at 9:43 pm
RE: Demons? - by Esquilax - January 9, 2014 at 12:31 am
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 8, 2014 at 9:13 pm
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 8, 2014 at 9:23 pm
RE: Demons? - by truthBtold - January 8, 2014 at 9:33 pm
RE: Demons? - by Jackalope - January 8, 2014 at 9:26 pm
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 8, 2014 at 9:33 pm
RE: Demons? - by Jackalope - January 8, 2014 at 9:36 pm
RE: Demons? - by truthBtold - January 8, 2014 at 9:56 pm
Re: RE: Demons? - by NoraBrimstone - January 9, 2014 at 6:21 am
RE: Demons? - by Sinnersburninhell100 - January 9, 2014 at 2:50 pm
RE: Demons? - by Fruity - January 9, 2014 at 3:30 pm
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 9, 2014 at 5:08 pm
RE: Demons? - by Fruity - January 9, 2014 at 5:45 pm
RE: Demons? - by Esquilax - January 10, 2014 at 6:30 am
RE: Demons? - by Crossless1 - January 10, 2014 at 12:11 pm
RE: Demons? - by Fruity - January 9, 2014 at 12:29 pm
RE: Demons? - by Crossless1 - January 9, 2014 at 5:08 pm
RE: Demons? - by JuliaL - January 9, 2014 at 1:57 pm
RE: Demons? - by Sinnersburninhell100 - January 9, 2014 at 7:08 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 9, 2014 at 7:17 pm
RE: Demons? - by Sinnersburninhell100 - January 9, 2014 at 9:05 pm
RE: Demons? - by Fidel_Castronaut - January 9, 2014 at 10:50 pm
RE: Demons? - by Esquilax - January 10, 2014 at 2:44 am
RE: Demons? - by Fruity - January 10, 2014 at 3:29 am
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 9, 2014 at 9:11 pm
RE: Demons? - by Michelle_Patton - January 9, 2014 at 10:40 pm
RE: Demons? - by Lemonvariable72 - January 10, 2014 at 2:48 am
Re: RE: Demons? - by NoraBrimstone - January 10, 2014 at 6:05 am
RE: Demons? - by Godschild - January 11, 2014 at 12:43 am
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 11, 2014 at 12:49 am
RE: Demons? - by Lemonvariable72 - January 11, 2014 at 1:10 am
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 11, 2014 at 1:30 am
RE: Demons? - by Lemonvariable72 - January 11, 2014 at 1:34 am
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 11, 2014 at 1:41 am
RE: Demons? - by Lemonvariable72 - January 11, 2014 at 1:50 am
RE: Demons? - by Godschild - January 14, 2014 at 3:03 pm
RE: Demons? - by Lemonvariable72 - January 14, 2014 at 6:25 pm
RE: Demons? - by downbeatplumb - January 11, 2014 at 11:38 am
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 11, 2014 at 10:02 am
RE: Demons? - by Minimalist - January 11, 2014 at 11:43 am
RE: Demons? - by Sinnersburninhell100 - January 13, 2014 at 1:01 am
RE: Demons? - by Lemonvariable72 - January 13, 2014 at 1:04 am
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 11, 2014 at 11:52 am
RE: Demons? - by truthBtold - January 11, 2014 at 12:35 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 14, 2014 at 3:17 pm
RE: Demons? - by Godschild - January 14, 2014 at 6:08 pm
RE: Demons? - by ShaMan - January 14, 2014 at 3:52 pm
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 14, 2014 at 3:58 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 14, 2014 at 6:17 pm
RE: Demons? - by Godschild - January 14, 2014 at 6:27 pm
RE: Demons? - by The Valkyrie - January 14, 2014 at 8:54 pm
RE: Demons? - by Avodaiah - January 14, 2014 at 9:10 pm
RE: Demons? - by The Valkyrie - January 14, 2014 at 7:03 pm
RE: Demons? - by Godschild - January 14, 2014 at 7:22 pm
RE: Demons? - by ShaMan - January 14, 2014 at 7:25 pm
RE: Demons? - by Godschild - January 15, 2014 at 8:00 am
RE: Demons? - by The Valkyrie - January 14, 2014 at 9:25 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 14, 2014 at 7:32 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 14, 2014 at 8:58 pm
RE: Demons? - by EgoRaptor - January 14, 2014 at 9:08 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 14, 2014 at 9:15 pm
RE: Demons? - by Avodaiah - January 14, 2014 at 9:24 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 14, 2014 at 9:33 pm
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 15, 2014 at 1:04 am
RE: Demons? - by Avodaiah - January 15, 2014 at 4:28 pm
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 15, 2014 at 8:06 pm
RE: Demons? - by Avodaiah - January 15, 2014 at 9:52 pm
RE: Demons? - by Mister Agenda - January 16, 2014 at 3:10 pm
RE: Demons? - by Minimalist - January 14, 2014 at 9:50 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 15, 2014 at 10:09 am
RE: Demons? - by Mister Agenda - January 15, 2014 at 10:31 am
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 15, 2014 at 4:35 pm
RE: Demons? - by Sword of Christ - January 15, 2014 at 5:12 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 15, 2014 at 8:22 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 15, 2014 at 9:58 pm
RE: Demons? - by Avodaiah - January 15, 2014 at 10:05 pm
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 16, 2014 at 12:00 am
RE: Demons? - by Sword of Christ - January 17, 2014 at 5:17 am
RE: Demons? - by Esquilax - January 17, 2014 at 5:34 am
RE: Demons? - by Sword of Christ - January 17, 2014 at 9:05 am
RE: Demons? - by Esquilax - January 17, 2014 at 9:32 am
RE: Demons? - by Sword of Christ - January 17, 2014 at 10:21 am
RE: Demons? - by Esquilax - January 17, 2014 at 10:40 am
RE: Demons? - by Sword of Christ - January 17, 2014 at 3:19 pm
RE: Demons? - by Esquilax - January 18, 2014 at 12:20 am
RE: Demons? - by Sword of Christ - January 18, 2014 at 3:10 pm
RE: Demons? - by Esquilax - January 18, 2014 at 11:38 pm
RE: Demons? - by Chad32 - January 17, 2014 at 10:18 am
RE: Demons? - by Angrboda - January 18, 2014 at 6:04 pm
RE: Demons? - by Rev. Rye - January 18, 2014 at 11:49 pm
RE: Demons? - by Minimalist - January 19, 2014 at 12:03 am
RE: Demons? - by JuliaL - February 11, 2014 at 12:44 pm

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