Exorcism in the Philippines: The Demon Inside

The Demon Inside

Fr. Jocis Syquia is busy expelling demons.

http://www.philstar.com/men/2012/10/24/859889/demon-inside

The author of Exorcism, Encounters with the Paranormal and the Occult and Exorcist: A Spiritual Journey, a member of the Rome-based International Association of Exorcists and the director of the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism (yes, this is a real office), Fr. Jocis’s office receives at least three inquiries of suspected possession cases. A day.

In between sending demons to the foot of the cross and serving as a full-time formator at the San Carlos Seminary Major Seminary in Guadalupe, Fr. Jocis found time to sit down with me, expel all of my personal demos (although my humor writing may never be the same again) and share what makes someone susceptible to possession, why possessions are on the rise in the Philippines, and how wearing an anting-anting can make things inconceivably worse.

PHILIPPINE STAR: Fr. Jocis, how does one end up becoming an exorcist? Has it always been an interest of yours? Was it a calling? Or perhaps a mutant power? What brought you this ministry?

FATHER JOCIS SYQUIA: When I was younger, I was very interested in the occult and paranormal. But when I “opened” myself up by trying out all these “New Age” things like parapsychology, I got “harassed” — the demons started showing themselves to me, because I was still trying to live a Christian life. The demons didn’t want me to get close the Lord so I was experiencing a lot of oppression. When I was in the seminary, I didn’t read about these (occult) topics because I might be “attacked” again. When I was already a priest, I was assigned in Quiapo where  (then) Bishop Teodoro Buhain asked me to handle their many (possession) cases because I had obtained a degree in clinical psychology from UST. The Bishop believed that made me the best person to properly diagnose and discern these cases. The Bishop (and his successors) gave me the faculty for exorcism, so I studied more about it and was eventually sent to Rome for classes on exorcism. I study the occult now not so much out of interest, but more out of need. You see the needs of the people, and you have to answer by knowing the stand of the Church and how Christ would have handled (the possession).

What type of training to you have undergo to become an exorcist?

In canon law, there are certain requirements to be an exorcist. There are also spiritual attributes and stipulations: the person must be of mature age, he must live a life of piety, etc. When there are a lot of people asking for healing or deliverance for their house or for people, the Bishop of a diocese looks for a priest who has these qualities and gives them the “faculty.” The “faculty” doesn’t have to come all the way from the Vatican.

What do you mean when a priest is given the “faculty”?

When Bishop Buhain gave me the faculty, he shared with me his authority. So when I use the Roman ritual (one of the official ritual works of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that also contains the Rite of Exorcism), it is very powerful because… the entire church is behind that prayer.  If I was not an exorcist and I just said, “In the name of Jesus, get out,” it is not backed up by the power of the entire Church interceding for a particular case.

Can a non-Catholic attempt to perform the exorcism? For example, a Christian pastor? Or how about a faith healer?

Yes, Christian pastors can do deliverance prayers because they are baptized and they are praying in the name of Christ. But if an occult practitioner (like a faith healer) uses the name of Christ but in an occult manner, that’s different. Remember that in the Bible, Simon Magus also wanted the power to expel evil spirits in the name of Jesus. However, he didn’t want to expel spirits because he wanted a relationship with the Lord or to become the Lord’s instrument. He wanted to use it for his own personal agenda. Recall that the Bishops are the direct descendants of the Apostles, and they have the fullness and power that Christ has given to the Church. Thus, when there are really bad cases (of possession), it is (the exorcist) who is able to expel these demonic spirits.

What are these “evil spirits” that possess people? Are these the demons referred to in the Bible?

There are no other spirits in the spirit world that can possess people except evil spirits. God created two types of being, the angels and the humans. Only angels can possess humans because they are purely spiritual beings. They can easily knock out the consciousness of a person, come in and take over the material body. Good angels never possess people because they respect the free will and the bodily integrity of a person.  It is only evil spirits that can actually possess people. Because humans are lower than angels, the soul (of a deceased) cannot possess people because it is not part of our faith. God will not give the power (to a human soul) to come in and possess someone just like that.

Given your background both in clinical psychology and in exorcism, how are you able to distinguish between a person who merely requires counseling and/or medication or someone who is truly possessed?

Oftentimes, it’s not a clear-cut case of 100 percent psychological or 100 percent demonic. It can be both psychological illness and demonic possession. So we conduct proper interviews where we ask, was there anything occult, is the person very “sensitive,” did he play the spirit of the glass, etc.  We also conduct diagnostic tests. For example, when interviewing someone and I think there is an evil spirit there, I will command him with my mind, “In the name of Jesus Christ, be quiet!” And then he will suddenly be quiet. This is to test if the problem is merely psychological or more than that.

Wait, you said “with your mind”?

Yes, just with my mind. That’s how I test and I know that if I’m speaking with something beyond this person: there is another entity there who can read my mind who is not this person. When we test children whom we think are possessed, we put holy water in their milk without their knowledge. If they vomit out the milk or he can distinguish that the milk has holy water (then that is an indication). There are also more spiritual tests. When the (person who is suspected of being possessed) is brought (to the office of exorcism) for an interview, I can ask him, “In the name of Jesus, manifest yourself!” (If the person is possessed), then he will just lose himself completely. There are people who are deep into the occult and when you put holy water or exorcised salt around the room, they cannot enter.

You talk about “oppression” by an evil spirit. So does that mean that there are different levels of “possession”?

Possession is the highest level of extraordinary demonic attack while the lesser forms are oppression and obsession. It can start with an obsession — we have cases wherein a person does “spirit of the glass” and suddenly he does it very regularly to the point that he no longer needs any materials to already hear “voices in his head” from (the spirit of the glass).  When he tries to get rid of these voices or to stop communicating with these spirits, then it becomes oppression. Oppression happens when he gets bangungot at night or is he is attacked during the day, i.e. he experiences bodily pain, or he feels very depressed. If the person does not go to church right away for help, then after some time the spirit/s will have enough power to possess the person. Or if the person runs to occult practitioners (psychics, faith healers) for help, then more spirits come into the picture and the person becomes possessed.

Does the person who is being exorcised have to be of the Catholic faith? Could he also be Christian, Muslim or other faiths? Or even an agnostic or atheist?

This question was discussed in the Vatican. Remember that in the early church, exorcisms were always conducted outside of the church and directed towards the pagans who were possessed by the evil spirits to prevent these pagans from being evangelized. Up to today, we accept cases of people from other Christian sects or other religions or even atheists and we pray over them. But what is important is that we tell that that we are going to heal them in the name of Jesus Christ. And when they experience the healing, they start to ask more about Christ. Who is this Jesus who has power over the spirits? Then that is where the evangelization starts. We accept everyone, although it is (admittedly more) difficult when the (possessed person) is not Catholic because he has no devotion to Mama Mary, and we cannot use the sacramentals and the sacraments of the Church. So the main defenses and weapons that the Church has against these evil spirits cannot be used.

Are the cases of exorcism in our country on the rise because we are a country with a large Catholic population who know about exorcism?

In the United States, where Catholics comprise only 20 percent of the population, there are a lot of possession cases and exorcisms being performed. In the Philippines, we have so many (possession) cases. Why is that? Before, exorcisms were only directed outside the Church as pagans who were about to be baptized usually got possessed. This was because the evil spirit that they worshipped and offered sacrifices to was reacting to the evangelization. In the early Church, before a person was even baptized in the Cathecumenate (when one is in the state of receiving instruction from a catechist in the principals of the Catholic faith with a view to baptism), they had to be exorcised every week so that any spiritual contamination would be cut off. So why are exorcisms being directed against Catholics themselves nowadays? Because paganism has not been purified out of our faith.

You mean many Filipino Catholics practice pagan rituals?

Paganism in the sense that we still have a lot of occult and superstitious practices. Superstition is actually a remnant of paganism. For example, many Catholics still wear “anting-antings” or magpapadugo sila (a blood sacrifice usually involving livestock) when building a house, or they go to fortune tellers, manghuhulas, albularyos, espiritistas or mangkukulams or other types of occult practitioners. Many Catholics experience this form of extraordinary demonic attack because we are not actually purified.  And as we are coming into the “New Age,” there are a lot of people entering into witchcraft, Satanism and other forms of occult practices to gain some form of power and direction in their lives.

Father Jocis, can you sleep beside me tonight? I don’t think my Green Lantern power ring will provide me with much protection anymore.

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