Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Do you believe in demons? This top psychiatrist does
CROSS YOUR FINGERS Dr Richard Gallagher says there are very strict criteria for determining the person’s problem.
I am not just intuiting.
I’m dealing with it from a very scientific point of view. Image: 123RF/udra.
It is a phenomenon that is on the rise throughout the world: The number of cases of demonic possession – and demands for priests to carry out exorcisms – is, according to multiple sources, soaring.
Medical science remains sceptical.
However, a Princeton- and Yale-educated mainstream psychiatrist believes demonic possession is indeed very real, and claims that the majority of Americans agree with him. With 25 years’ experience in a private psychiatric practice and as a professor at New York Medical College and Columbia University, Dr Richard Gallagher has a rare vantage point to observe human behaviour.
And then there is the inhuman.
He is also a sought-after psychiatrist for discernment, the initial step in determining the need for exorcism.
Gallagher has evaluated hundreds of cases of possible possession and, in a wide-ranging and rare interview with the Telegraph, explains why he believes the phenomenon is genuine.
Read the full story on Times Select .