Jean Lhermitte (1877–1959)

Oo where to begin!

A long time ago I was warned that just because a book purports to be Christian does not make it so. I now know that just because a book is sold and/or advertised by a "Catholic" business that does mean that the book will contain solid Catholic teaching and/or be beneficial to your soul. Thankfully I told a fellow Catholic I was going to be reading this book and she asked who the publisher was, and when I told her she warned me against reading it -- just based on the publisher!

So I read it cautiously ...

and I'm really glad I did; read it cautiously that is, I could have probably gone with not reading, period.

It was interesting.
The section on mass hysteria was the most interesting to me.
I am dead set against the purported apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje. I pity the people that fall for it. While the section on mass hysteria did not touch on the hysteria that can take place when people purport to see visions of Mary or Jesus, I felt that connections could still be made.

The complete one sided aspect of the book was a disappointment. We were told of different accounts of "demonic possession" that never happened but the flip-side of that could easily be the divine visitations that some people report ... that was never touched on.

And, finally, the final two chapters just killed it for me. The final 2 chapters are way this book should no longer be published. A mother clearly suffering from postpartum depression is accused of witchcraft and being possessed by the devil, willingly. Completely ignored by her husband, who she told for "several nights" that she felt like she was being told to harm her child, she eventually does try to kill her child. Thankfully, "[a] good guardian angel, no doubt, intervened..." WHAT?! And then she's cured of this devilry through electroshock treatments.

And then we're told that Freudian psychoanalysis comes from the devil and the reason that possessions don't happen as much now is because the devil has masked himself as "institutions". I knew there was something I didn't like about FOX News! Or wait, is it MSNBC?

Adrianne… (más)