# Exorcism

Source: https://spiritfold.com/Exorcism  
Published by the Australian Spiritual Alliance on Spiritfold, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

**Exorcism** is a formal rite intended to drive out spiritual forces that are believed to have entered a person's body. It goes hand in hand with the idea of spirit possession, which is the condition it aims to cure, and the spirits it targets are usually understood as demons or as the restless ghosts of the dead.[1] The English word comes from the Greek *exorkizein*, meaning to bind by an oath.[1]

This page describes exorcism as a religious practice found in many faiths. Spiritualism does not practise it. Spiritualist teaching does not accept the idea of "evil spirits",[2] and Spiritualists have instead formed rescue circles to help the troubled dead move on; see [Spirit rescue](https://spiritfold.com/Spirit_rescue).[3] The difference is explained under Why Spiritualists do not exorcise below.

Exorcism has been linked to serious harm, including the abuse of children; see Safety and good practice below.[4][5]

## Description

### Forms of exorcism

Exorcisms take many forms. Some consist only of words; many also use objects, gestures and actions believed to have power over invading spirits; and in some settings a person thought to be especially holy or charismatic is believed able to drive spirits out. In many cultures, music and dance are central to the rite.[1] In cultures where possession by neutral or helpful spirits is valued, exorcism is less likely to be important; where possession is understood as the work of evil spirits, exorcism is seen as a vital form of healing.[1]

### Christian exorcism

Christianity has included a strong belief in possession by demons from its beginnings, and exorcism has a long history in the Church, especially, though not only, among Catholics.[1] In the fifteenth century the Catholic Church began to use formal, scripted liturgical exorcisms, and many elements of these were set down in 1614 in the official *Roman Ritual*. In 1999 the Vatican updated the rite for the first time since 1614, advising consultation with doctors and psychologists to rule out physical and mental illness. Catholic officials in the twentieth century regarded genuine possession as extremely rare and easily confused with natural mental disturbance.[1]

Some charismatic and evangelical Christians practise a form of exorcism called **deliverance**. Most charismatic deliverance ministers distinguished between possession and affliction: they held that a committed Christian could not be fully possessed, but could be troubled by demonic powers in parts of their life.[6] Most deliverance sessions are simple prayer sessions for the person's relief.[1]

### Other traditions

In Judaism, a strong focus on possession and exorcism is not well attested before the mid-sixteenth century, when belief in possession by the wandering spirits of the dead (later called a *dybbuk*) emerged in Safed in Galilee. Rabbinic exorcists sought to heal both the possessed person and the possessing spirit.[1] In Egypt, Qur'anic healing, usually led by a sheikh at a mosque, is used to drive out invading spirits such as *jinn*.[1] In India, practices vary widely by region; at the Balaji temple in Rajasthan, for example, exorcisms are collective, with carers and priests praying to the god Hanuman.[1]

## Scope

### What it includes

- Rites to expel spirits believed to possess a person, ranging from spoken formulas and prayer to rituals with objects, music and dance[1]
- In Christianity, formal Catholic rites and charismatic or evangelical deliverance[1][6]

### What it is not

- In the Catholic Church, exorcism is not meant to be performed without authority. Canon law requires each diocese to have an exorcist,[7] and CathNews reports that under church rules an exorcism needs a bishop's permission.[8] *The Record* adds that a "minor exorcism" can be carried out by a priest without that permission.[7]
- Exorcism is not a substitute for medical or mental health care. The Catholic rite revised in 1999 advises consulting doctors and psychologists to rule out illness.[1] From the eighteenth century, educated Europeans increasingly saw symptoms once taken as signs of possession as signs of natural illness.[1] In Australia, historian Sarah Ferber of the University of Wollongong told *The Canberra Times* in 2014 that Catholic priests considering an exorcism must first have the person psychologically assessed, and that exorcists are trained to recognise mental illness.[4]
- There is little evidence on outcomes. Because long-term follow-up studies are lacking, whether exorcism has any therapeutic benefit remains an open question.[6]

## Traditions and lineage

Exorcism appears often in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, where Jesus casts out demons and gives his disciples power to do the same. By the third century, a designated exorcist was required in every Christian community, and exorcism became part of the rite of baptism. In the Middle Ages, accounts of exorcisms by saints, or at their tombs and relics, increased greatly.[1]

During the Reformation, Protestant reformers accepted that possession could happen but debated whether ritual exorcism worked. John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli rejected ritual exorcism altogether; most Protestant groups set aside formal rites for adults but accepted prayer and fasting.[1] Possession cases were sometimes bound up with the witchcraft persecutions, and some high-profile public exorcisms were used for religious propaganda.[1]

In the United States, the 1973 film *The Exorcist* prompted a revival of interest and many more requests to Catholic bishops, few of which were granted.[1] Through the 1970s to the 1990s, deliverance spread through the charismatic renewal and then parts of evangelical Protestantism, and some unofficial exorcisms were carried out by priests acting without church approval or the psychological screening the church required.[6]

## Context

### Within Spiritualism

#### Why Spiritualists do not exorcise

Exorcism assumes that a person can be taken over by an evil spirit that has to be driven out.[1] Spiritualist teaching starts from a different place. The National Spiritualist Association of Churches in the United States says "the true Spiritualist" does not accept the term "evil spirits": such spirits are unenlightened people who once lived on earth, and some are allowed to visit Spiritualist circles to learn and progress.[2] The same source teaches that no being is bad by nature and that evil comes from ignorance.[2]

If a troubled spirit is a confused or ignorant person, it needs teaching and kindness rather than expulsion. That is the reasoning behind Spiritualist rescue circles, formed to "wake up" the earthbound dead and help them move on.[3] The *Psi Encyclopedia* describes modern "spirit release" work in similar terms: practitioners communicate with what they regard as an earthbound spirit and encourage it to move into "the Light".[9] See [Spirit rescue](https://spiritfold.com/Spirit_rescue).

The Spiritism of Allan Kardec, a related tradition, takes the same view by its own route. It does not believe in demons or in spirits that are evil by nature, and it teaches that spirits do not possess people, so it has no exorcism rituals. Where a spirit is thought to be interfering with someone, Kardecists use a ritual called "disobsession", which seeks to help both the person and the spirit.[10] See [Spiritism](https://spiritfold.com/Spiritism).

### In Australian Spiritualism

In his study of Sydney Spiritualists in the late 1970s, Paul Gillen recorded that "rescue work" could include what he called the "exorcism" of earthbound spirits from houses or places where they were said to frighten people, either by rescuing the spirit or by doing or saying something to make it leave.[11] In Canberra, Matt Tomlinson describes a "house cleansing" recounted in a book by a Canberra Spiritualist Association medium as, loosely, the Spiritualist equivalent of an exorcism.[12]

### A Spiritualist perspective

Exorcism belongs to other religious traditions, which a Spiritualist would respect while approaching the subject quite differently. [Spiritualism](https://spiritfold.com/Spiritualism) does not teach that people are taken over by demons. A spirit thought to be lingering is regarded as someone who once lived on earth, perhaps confused or unhappy, and the Spiritualist response is rescue: patience, prayer and kindness, not combat.

That outlook carries real responsibility. The deaths and abuse recorded above show the harm that follows when people believe they are fighting an evil force rather than caring for a human being. No Spiritualist should ever tell anyone, least of all a child, that they are possessed, and nothing done in the name of spirit should involve force, restraint, fear or shame. Distress, changed behaviour or frightening experiences call for compassion and a doctor or mental health professional. Where a child may be at risk, the child's safety comes before everything else.

## Exorcism in Australia

Under canon law, each Catholic diocese must have an exorcist. In 2011 *The Record*, the Catholic newspaper in Perth, reported an estimate of only about 20 exorcists across Australia's 30 Catholic dioceses and two eparchies. It added that meetings had recently been held for clergy working in this ministry, among them a two-day conference in Sydney. The article reported the view of Bishop Julian Porteous, then an auxiliary bishop of Sydney, that an exorcist has to judge with great care whether someone's trouble is psychological or a real demonic attack, and that at times it may be both.[7]

In a 2014 *Canberra Times* report, the Catholic Bishop of Wollongong, Peter Ingham, confirmed that his diocese had at least one priest trained in exorcism, who regularly attended seminars on the subject. He said the training stressed ruling out other explanations first, that he had not heard of a "major exorcism" in the diocese since 2001, and that "minor exorcisms", such as blessings of homes or people, were fairly common. Sarah Ferber said exorcism had been returning for about 40 years and had traditionally divided the Church, with some priests seeing it as pastoral care and others preferring other ways of caring for people.[4]

### Deaths and the courts

Exorcism has come before Australian courts. In 1993 a 49-year-old woman died on a farm near Dimboola in western Victoria at the end of a week-long attempt by four people, including her husband, to rid her of demons; during it she was tied to a chair and pressure was applied to her body. A magistrate at Horsham found there was not enough evidence to send the four to trial for manslaughter, but, sitting as coroner, found that they had contributed to her death.[13] The case later went to trial as *R v Vollmer and Others*. Adrian Howe and Sarah Ferber (then at the University of Queensland) call it Australia's best-known "exorcism-manslaughter" case. They argue that seeing it as merely bizarre obscured how closely it resembled other cases where a husband faces charges over his wife's death.[14]

According to Ferber, about 30 deaths over three decades can be linked, directly or indirectly, to exorcism. Two of them were the Victorian woman who died in 1993 and a Sydney child who died in 1999, and in each case it was relatives who thought the person possessed. Ferber's view is that these deaths happened because the people involved thought they were battling a demon, not harming a human being.[4]

## Safety and good practice

### Documented harm

For Australian deaths linked to exorcism, see Deaths and the courts above. No Australian government guidance written specifically about abuse linked to beliefs in possession was found. Detailed guidance has been published in England. In 2012 the UK Department for Education published a national action plan on child abuse linked to faith or belief, developed by a national working group of government, local statutory partners, faith leaders, voluntary organisations and the Metropolitan Police. It covers abuse linked to beliefs in witchcraft, spirit possession, demons or the devil, the evil eye or djinns, among others.[5] The plan applies to England, but it describes beliefs that are not confined to any one faith, nationality or ethnic community.[5]

The plan reports that:

- Such beliefs are recorded worldwide, among people of many backgrounds and faiths, including Christian, Muslim, Hindu and pagan. Only a small minority of people who hold them go on to harm children, but under-reporting is likely.[5]
- Where a child is believed to be possessed, the people abusing them may believe they are saving the child by driving out the devil. The belief that a child can harm others can create real fear in those who would normally protect the child, and a faith leader or other influential person is sometimes at the centre.[5]
- Children who are different in some way, for example through disability, illness, a learning difficulty or difficult behaviour, can be singled out and blamed.[5]
- Child abuse linked to belief includes physical violence and the emotional harm of labelling a child as evil or as a witch. Child abuse is never acceptable under any circumstances, and standard child protection procedures apply in every case.[5]

In 2024 CathNews, the news service of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, reported that a Vatican investigation led by a former Bishop of Toowoomba had resulted in a New Zealand religious order losing its authority to minister. The order faced allegations of unauthorised exorcisms, including claims that exorcisms had been performed on young children, which its leaders said were only "minor exorcisms", and of spiritual and psychological abuse.[8]

### Australian child safe framework

In Australia, the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations were developed by the Australian Human Rights Commission, at the Australian Government's request, following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The Commission describes a child safe organisation as one that puts the best interests of children first, acts to prevent harm and responds to any concerns or allegations of harm.[15]

## Related modalities

- [Spirit rescue](https://spiritfold.com/Spirit_rescue)
- [Spiritism](https://spiritfold.com/Spiritism)

## References

1. Caciola, Nancy. ["Exorcism"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-and-general-terms/religion-general/exorcism). *Encyclopedia of Religion*, 2005. Reproduced on Encyclopedia.com (accessed 11 October 2026).
2. National Spiritualist Association of Churches. ["Frequently Asked Questions"](https://nsac.org/faq/). NSAC (no date shown; accessed 12 October 2026).
3. ["Rescue Circles"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/rescue-circles). *Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology*, 5th ed. (Gale, 2001), via Encyclopedia.com (accessed 12 October 2026).
4. Butler, Joshua. ["Saving your soul: The act of exorcism"](https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/2428626/saving-your-soul-the-act-of-exorcism/). *The Canberra Times*, first published 18 July 2014, updated 20 July 2014 (accessed 11 October 2026).
5. Department for Education (UK). [*National action plan to tackle child abuse linked to faith or belief*](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-action-plan-to-tackle-child-abuse-linked-to-faith-or-belief). 14 August 2012. [PDF](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7b3dbeed915d429748dc66/Action_Plan_-_Abuse_linked_to_Faith_or_Belief.pdf) (accessed 11 October 2026).
6. Cuneo, Michael W. ["Exorcism"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-and-general-terms/religion-general/exorcism). *Contemporary American Religion*. Reproduced on Encyclopedia.com (accessed 11 October 2026).
7. *The Record*. ["Dealing with the dark side: exorcism's link to faith decline"](https://therecord.com.au/news/local/dealing-with-the-dark-side-exorcisms-link-to-faith-decline/). *The Record*, Perth, 30 June 2011 (accessed 11 October 2026).
8. ["Religious order stripped of authority over unauthorised exorcisms"](https://cathnews.com/2024/07/17/religious-order-stripped-of-authority-over-unauthorised-exorcisms/). *CathNews*, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, 17 July 2024, drawing on the *NZ Herald* (accessed 11 October 2026).
9. "Spirit Release Therapy". *[Psi Encyclopedia](https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/spirit-release-therapy)*. London: Society for Psychical Research (accessed 12 October 2026).
10. Engler, Steven. ["Kardecism"](https://wrldrels.org/?p=20209). World Religions and Spirituality Project, 6 April 2022 (accessed 12 October 2026).
11. Gillen, Paul. *[The Spiritualists: Gnosis and Ideology](https://figshare.mq.edu.au/articles/thesis/The_spiritualists_gnosis_and_ideology/19431146/1)*. PhD thesis, School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, 1981, PDF p. 71 (accessed 12 October 2026).
12. Tomlinson, Matt. *[Speaking with the Dead: An Ethnography of Extrahuman Experience](https://doi.org/10.53288/0465.1.00)*. Earth: punctum books, 2024, p. 168. Open access under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (accessed 12 October 2026).
13. "Court clears four after exorcism death". *The Canberra Times*, 17 September 1993, p. 2. Read on [Trove](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/127247897), National Library of Australia (accessed 11 October 2026).
14. Howe, Adrian and Sarah Ferber. "Delivering demons, punishing wives: False imprisonment, exorcism and other matrimonial duties in a late 20th-century manslaughter case". *Punishment & Society* 7, no. 2 (April 2005): 123–146. [doi:10.1177/1462474505050438](https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474505050438). Abstract read via the Crossref API (accessed 11 October 2026).
15. Australian Human Rights Commission. ["Child Safe Organisations: Implementation Tools"](https://childsafe.humanrights.gov.au/national-principles) (page on the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations; accessed 11 October 2026).

## Further reading

- Australian Human Rights Commission. ["Child Safe Organisations: Implementation Tools"](https://childsafe.humanrights.gov.au/national-principles).
- Butler, Joshua. ["Saving your soul: The act of exorcism"](https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/2428626/saving-your-soul-the-act-of-exorcism/). *The Canberra Times*, 18 July 2014.
- Caciola, Nancy. ["Exorcism"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-and-general-terms/religion-general/exorcism). *Encyclopedia of Religion*, 2005.
- Cuneo, Michael W. ["Exorcism"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-and-general-terms/religion-general/exorcism). *Contemporary American Religion*.
- Department for Education (UK). [*National action plan to tackle child abuse linked to faith or belief*](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-action-plan-to-tackle-child-abuse-linked-to-faith-or-belief). 2012.
- Howe, Adrian and Sarah Ferber. ["Delivering demons, punishing wives"](https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474505050438). *Punishment & Society*, 2005. An academic analysis of an Australian court case.