Exorcism: 7 Religions, 67 Rites, Zero Records

My Weird Prompts · Oct 5, 2026 · 22m

Exorcism comes from the Greek exorkismos — "binding by oath." It's a legal act, not a medical one, and it's older than any institution that codified it. This episode traces possession belief from the 63 documented dybbuk cases in Jewish tradition through medieval Europe, where possession was the only available concept for psychoses and epilepsy, to the modern bureaucratic machinery of screening procedures and bishop's permissions. Seven major traditions have codified rites — Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Latter-day Saints, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism — and Sikhism…