PAGE 28 • February 2020
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TABLE HOPPING
My Mind To Yours
by DEBRA MERRYWEATHER
Up to This Minute On January 22, the State of Utah joined 18 other states in outlawing so-called conversion therapy intended to change LGBTQ children into straight children. An NPR report applauded the conservative Mormon Church for supporting the new law. A Reuters report states the Mormon Church supported the ban because the law exempts clergy, lay pastoral and spiritual counselors, including Mormon counselors, from the ban. The January 24 Post-Standard featured an article by Jean Hopfensperger Tribune News Service announcing that Exorcisms are back. During exorcisms, priests seek to stop demonically driven rages, intrusive voices, house hauntings, abnormal strength, and feelings. In Greek mythology, demons were bad spirits; daemons were good spirits. We all experience the good and the bad. While exorcism is associated with Roman Catholicism, other charismatic and Pentecostal groups practice faith healing and the casting out of demons. Ms. Hopfensperger writes that speaking an unknown language is a sign of possession. Often, Pentecostal groups speak in tongues, a manifestation of being possessed by spirit. We think and communicate in words. An exhibit, years ago, at the Everson Museum focused on the literal and metaphoric baggage some patients brought with them to the Willard Psychiatric Hospital near Ovid, NY. Willard treated one man because he spoke an unknown language. Eventually, someone at the facility noticed he was speaking a unique, I believe, Slavic dialect. Would the Willard patient have fared better with an exorcist? The Tribune article quotes one exorcist who says, “I’ve seen eyes rolling to the back of the head, foaming at the mouth, people hissing, people speaking in strange voices.” These manifestations are also associated with vasovagal syncope, epilepsy and seizure. And, the rolling of eyes into the back of one’s skull or head might be part of a developed skill set. YouTube features the video of a young boy happy to teach viewers how to do it. The boy rolls his eyes back in a step by step process.
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El Greco, The Vision of Saint John (1608-1614) On January 23, the New York Times published a bit of testimony from Harvey Weinstein’s trial for rape. Actress Annabella Sciorra testified that in late 1993 or early 1994, Weinstein forced himself on her after entering Sciorra’s secure apartment building. Ms. Sciorra said she answered the knock at the door thinking it must be a neighbor or the doorman. Annabella Sciorra testified, “I said, ‘No, no,’ but there was not much I could do,” she said. “My body shut down. It was so disgusting my body started to shake in a way that was unusual. It was like a seizure or something.” I have a theory. Well, I have many theories, but I have a particular theory that relates to the “me too” movement, issues of so-called personal responsibility and all of the issues
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St. Francis Borgia Helping a Dying Impenitent by Goya
