People hold bizarre beliefs all the time, and it may be that Irmak is well-intentioned indeed, he dedicates his paper ‘to the American mathematician John Forbes Nash and to all schizophrenic patients’. What is most concerning about this argument is not that Irmak believes demonic possession to be worthy of serious consideration in explaining schizophrenia. 2 But, even so, in the words of the comedian Dara Ó Briain, ‘just because science doesn’t know everything doesn’t mean you can fill in the gaps with whatever fairy tale most appeals to you’. Admittedly, there is an important disanalogy between the two cases: science knows how and why children get compensated for their lost teeth, but not exactly how and why schizophrenics experience auditory hallucinations. If the uncanny similarity between schizophrenia and demonic possession is evidence that demonic possession is real, then the uncanny similarity between financial compensation for childhood tooth loss and visits by the tooth fairy is presumably evidence that the tooth fairy is real. His observation that ‘there exist similarities between the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia and demonic possession’ is no more surprising than the observation that there exist similarities between financial compensation for childhood tooth loss and visits by the tooth fairy: in each case, the latter is a hypothesis motivated by a desire to explain the former. Lest anyone suspect me of being unfairly prejudiced against the possibility of demons, let me point out that even those who subscribe to a demonic metaphysics should not be persuaded by Irmak’s argument. This is a dumbfounding argument, and it is shocking to find it published in a post-mediaeval peer-reviewed journal.

Irmak concludes that ‘it is time for medical professions to consider the possibility of demonic possession in the etiology of schizophrenia’ and that ‘it would be useful for medical professions to work together with faith healers to deﬁne better treatment pathways for schizophrenia’ (p. On the other hand, auditory hallucinations expressed as voices arguing with one another and talking to the patient in the third person may be a result of the presence of more than one demon in the body. This input seems to be construed by the patient as “bad things,” reflecting the operation of the nervous system on the poorly structured sensory input to form an acceptable percept. The hallucination in schizophrenia may therefore be an illusion-a false interpretation of a real sensory image formed by demons. In schizophrenia, the hallucination may be an auditory input also derived from demons, and the patient may hear these inputs not audible to the observer. Delusions of schizophrenia such as “My feelings and movements are controlled by others in a certain way” and “They put thoughts in my head that are not mine” may be thoughts that stem from the effects of demons on the brain. Common symptoms in schizophrenia and demonic possession such as hallucinations and delusions may be a result of the fact that demons in the vicinity of the brain may form the symptoms of schizophrenia. The lessons for schizophrenia that Irmak draws from these observations are worth quoting in full:Īs seen above, there exist similarities between the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia and demonic possession. 775), in which case ‘emonic possession can manifest with a range of bizarre behaviors which could be interpreted as a number of different psychotic disorders’ (p. They have an ‘ability to possess and take over the minds and bodies of humans’ (p. Demons, he tells us, are ‘intelligent and unseen creatures that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind’ (p. Since it is difficult to make sense of these hallucinations, Irmak invites us ‘to consider the possibility of a demonic world’ (p.

Kemal Irmak notes that schizophrenia is a devastating chronic mental condition often characterised by auditory hallucinations. Is there anything wrong with seriously entertaining this possibility? Not according to the author of a research article published this month in Journal of Religion and Health.

Dr who i would suffer a world of demons