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EXPERTS DESCRIBE SUBTLE MANIFESTATIONS OF EVIL AND WONDER WHY EXORCISM ISN'T PREACHED

"The pages of the New Testament are filled with His miracles of healing and casting out of evil spirits," writes an author named Don Dickerman. "Why do our churches remain so silent about it? Why don't we experience these things? In the Book of Luke, these passages give us some insight as to why."

That insight, says this writer, has to do with belief and expectation: we get what we expect.

Back then, he points out, when Jesus was on earth, deliverance was known. It was preached. "The people came not only to hear Him but also to be healed by Him," Dickerman says. "It seems today we only go to hear Him. I believe the responsibility for expectation is missing in the Church. It is the fault not only of the preachers but also of congregants who don't want their preachers to preach and practice healing and deliverance. Demon powers are doing a good job of keeping this out of the Church -- think about it; this what Jesus did and what He told us to do."

The majority of times that the Lord healed,  demons had to be expelled first -- indicating just how much of a factor they can be in illness (and the urgency of treating it as a Church matter, not a rarity). In fact, "unclean spirit" and "demon" or "devil" are mentioned at least 128 times, in the New Testament alone -- far more frequently than is proportionate to typical preaching in Catholicism and mainstream Protestant churches, both of which have seen steady outflows of faithful, especially the young, to Pentecostal and charismatic churches that deal directly with such issues.

"In My Name they will cast out demons," said the Lord. "They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover" (Mark 16:17-18).

The simple addressing of demonology, in the same proportion as Jesus, could be a major step in halting the hemorrhage. According to one report, there are a dozen or less official exorcists in Catholic dioceses -- despite Vatican directives that each diocese have one and despite testimony in the Bible indicating the frequency -- not the rarity -- of demonic infestations (many of which can be handled by deliverance, even by laymen, as opposed to full-scale exorcisms, which should have approval of the bishop, because they are more powerful and dangerous).

A Catholic healing evangelist, Francis MacNutt of Florida, agrees. "For the first 350 years, the leaders of the early Church taught that every Christian could heal the sick and even cast out evil spirits," he writes in a new book, The Practice of Healing Prayer. "For example, Tertullian (around A.D. 200), one of the early Fathers of the Church, asserted that if a man is possessed by an evil spirit, this demon 'can be commanded by any Christian at all,' and 'they are forced to leave the bodies they have invaded.'"

Adds MacNutt: "It was only in the fourth century, after the emperor Constantine was converted in 312, that miraculous healing came to be regarded as a rare outcome of prayer. Once Christianity became sanctioned by the state and grew in popularity, people gradually started believing that only those who were exceptionally holy could heal the sick, namely saints and priests."

Are there hopeful signs? Perhaps. In Europe international meetings of exorcists have taken place in recent years, and in the U.S., bishops have begun a first step by allowing retreats and a conference on exorcism -- at the same time that Hollywood is coming out with a flurry of shows on the issue (perhaps because demonism is a problem that has never been so manifest).

In a book called Keep the Pigs Out, Dickerman, a general Christian, posits that demons exert authority not only over individuals but families, neighborhoods, communities, and even states, as "territorial princes." The power of darkness is often exhibited through a spirit of fear or rejection. "There may be numerous 'legal rights' that demons have to someone's life," he says. "Forgiveness of sin hits at the very root of all diseases and either cures or alters their property." It's not all spinning heads or levitation; far more frequently, demonism is subtle, insinuating itself by stealth into our lives. It is a good reason to seek the Immaculate Mother to help with cleansing.

When there is darkness in us, it attracts external darkness. Meanwhile, our culture has been pervaded by the negative.

A U.S. healing priest, Father Robert DeGrandis, notes in a book called Intergenerational Healing that those who pray in an active way become sensitive to dark presences. "When we are around things of the occult, whether it is books, signs, symbols, or even hard-core rock music, it contaminates our spirit. This is why oftentimes charismatics can't listen to hard rock. The Holy Spirit and their spirit are resisting intrusion of contamination. We need to cut ourselves off from those things that are the occasion of contamination -- books, movies, fantasies, anything that opens our spirit to the evil spirit."

[resources: Keep the Pigs Out, Intergenerational Healing, The Practice of Healing Prayer, and The Spirits Around Us]

[see also: Exorcism and Hollywood]

[resources: Michael Brown retreat: deliverance, spiritual protection, New Orleans and A special retreat in New Mexico][