Exorcism
Channel 4 billed The Exorcism as if it was to be one of the TV events of the year.
Shown “as live” yesterday evening (meaning it was pre-recorded, but saying it is “as live” makes it sound so much more exciting), the programme promised to show what happens in a subject’s brain when they are being exorcised (not very much as it turned out).
However, it seems to have been one monumental cock-up. It all went wrong right from the start, with presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy attempting to interview various scientists, psycholgists and religious leaders - few of whom seemed to know what they were doing there (save for the free bar) and fewer still even thought they knew what an exorcism was. Worse still was the man performing the exorcism, giving one word or extremely evasive answers in the obligatory pre- and post-event interviews.
To cap it all, there wasn’t even agreement between the experts whether what actually happened was an exorcism. Was it really a deliverance (whatever that is) or simply some intensive prayer?
Certainly, if you’ve ever seen any clips from The Exorcist it didn’t look like an exorcism. The subject just sat there calmly, looking bewildered about the whole experience. No signs of him vomiting green slime or his head spinning around.
I’m intensely sceptical about the whole programme. I think it was more a demonstration of how a bit of prayer and attention can bring somebody a lot of peace, rather than anything more dramatic.
