{"id":10298,"date":"2024-05-09T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=10298"},"modified":"2024-05-09T12:47:14","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T16:47:14","slug":"exorcism-stories-give-terrifying-warning-about-dangers-of-the-occult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/05\/exorcism-stories-give-terrifying-warning-about-dangers-of-the-occult.html","title":{"rendered":"Exorcism Stories Give Terrifying Warning About Dangers of the Occult"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_10349\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10349\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10349\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/05\/exorcism-occult-02_credit-Adobe-Stock-550x413.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"413\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10349\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Possession, exorcism, and sinister evil are mainstays in several Hollywood productions. However, these themes are also deeply rooted in Scripture, with the New Testament highlighting Jesus\u2019 ministry of expelling the demonic from tormented individuals. These are themes at the heart of \u201cThe Exorcist Files,\u201d a podcast created and hosted by Ryan Bethea. The show is currently running\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/totc\/exorcist-files-s2\">a Kickstarter campaign<\/a>\u00a0to fund season two and has blown past its goal.<\/p>\n<p>Bethea told CBN News he initially created the show with a \u201clighthearted desire to document metaphysical phenomenon.\u201d He said, \u201cI&#8217;ve always been fascinated with just the idea of \u2026 what are those crazy coincidences, or miraculous answers to prayer, or even just healings. I don&#8217;t want to mislead people to thinking that I&#8217;ve seen hundreds of people healed of crazy things, but there&#8217;s a lot of cool things going on that can&#8217;t be explained in our world.&#8221; After meeting some leaders at the Vatican, Bethea said the idea for &#8220;The Exorcist Files&#8221; was born. He soon met Carlos Martins, a Catholic priest and exorcist who expels evil.<\/p>\n<p>Bethea and Martins teamed up, started parsing through Martins&#8217; case files, and put the show together. But unlike some Hollywood productions bent on simply scaring people, Bethea said &#8220;The Exorcist Files&#8221; is quite different. While the show includes dramatic reenactments and guides listeners through some spine-chilling stories, the host said the podcast has a deeper meaning and intent, especially for Martins. &#8220;This is a very serious, and to [Martins&#8217;] credit, he actually was very reluctant to share this,&#8221; Bethea said. &#8220;It was only out of a desire to say, &#8216;Hey, I want to warn people about the dangers of dabbling in the occult.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xWZloYuOZOs?si=AMjq21kemo2CkeiE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bethea, a Christian, believes in the supernatural but has a healthy skepticism about possession stories. &#8220;I just come at everything very skeptical,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I\u2019m playing the skeptic on the show, which is like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m just putting the evidence out there, and you can decide whether all these people are making this up or not.\u201d One staple of the podcast is the inclusion of well-respected experts who have had experiences with the demonic they cannot explain \u2014 situations some believe prove the existence of true evil. Bethea said the issue of evil isn\u2019t debated in many parts of the world; it\u2019s simply a settled reality.<\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cYou travel the world, and in a lot of different countries, the idea that the supernatural is very real, this is not a controversial topic. It seems to be more in our sort of Western, post-modern world.\u201d Bethea said it\u2019s fascinating that so many churches don\u2019t speak about the issue despite the fact that some could argue that Jesus spent a substantial amount of time dealing with it in the Gospels. \u201cOne of the first \u2026 encounters with Jesus in the temple, you have a demoniac manifesting in the Jewish temple, which I felt was really interesting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bethea, like Martins, is hoping to raise awareness through \u201cThe Exorcist Files\u201d and to get people thinking deeper about issues pertaining to truth, evil, and other related issues presented in the Gospels. \u201cI want people to consider the question and say, \u2018If this is true, what would this mean for my life?&#8217;\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m absolutely convinced that there\u2019s a reality here, and so I just want to wake people up to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Possession, exorcism, and sinister evil are mainstays in several Hollywood productions. However, these themes are also deeply rooted in Scripture, with the New Testament highlighting Jesus\u2019 ministry of expelling the demonic from tormented individuals. These are themes at the heart of \u201cThe Exorcist Files,\u201d a podcast created and hosted by Ryan Bethea. The show is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":10349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[76,1691],"class_list":["post-10298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-christian-news","tag-demonic-possession","tag-occult"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Exorcism Stories Give Terrifying Warning About Dangers of the Occult<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Possession, exorcism, and sinister evil are mainstays in several Hollywood productions. 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