Over Easter came a story about how at least fifty people a year require formal medical care in Jerusalem because on visiting the holy city, they flip into a dramatic mental state.
An Irish schoolteacher who came to a Jerusalem hospital convinced she was about to give birth to the Baby Jesus when in fact she was not even pregnant.
A Canadian tourist who believed he was the Biblical strongman Samson and tried to tear stone blocks out of the Wailing Wall.
An Austrian man who flew into a rage in his hotel kitchen when staff refused to prepare the the Last Supper for him…
It all comes to us from Raf Sanchez of the London Telegraph, who noted, “These are just a few examples of what has come to be known as the Jerusalem Syndrome: a well-documented phenomenon where foreign visitors suffer psychotic delusions that they are figures from the Bible or harbingers of the End of Days.”
They are folks who for the most part had pre-existing mental conditions magnified by their visits to the holy place, a hotspot not only of emotion but in the tussle between good and evil, as in angels and demons.
In the realm of spiritual warfare, as in other areas of life (on this planet called earth), there are certain things that can serve as the “straw” breaking the camel’s back.
In fact, in many cases, when a demon or unclean spirit is affecting us physically, there is also a natural “explanation.” A virus causes pneumonia. A carcinogen leads to malignancy. An allergy is from pollen. Bones ache due to cartilage deterioration.
This is all true, and many times such “normal” physiological factors are the sole cause of a malady. But there are also times when spirits are involved, working in conjunction with a natural etiology.
The same is true for Tourette’s syndome — whereby people suddenly start acting and speaking in a bizarre, often profane manner, with strange body movements, including tics; frequently it spreads like a contagious disease. A recent outbreak was recorded in Upstate New York (near another spiritual hotspot).
The supernatural interweaves with the natural. There is natural and supernatural cause for an effect. Demons look for physical (as well as emotional) weaknesses and strike there.
They look for “woundedness.” Frequently, they simply push something teetering over the edge.
And so it is always important to combine prayer with medication and other natural remedies. There can be a tesselation — many pieces to a mosaic.
The same is true for objects: something that breaks down or an accident that occurs, though physically explicable, can be nudged to that end by an invisible dynamic.
Thus is it important to cast evil out of every “breakdown,” just in case. One way is through love. We are called to love our neighbors and to love those from whom evil comes to us. This goes to God’s Plan and shields us; it also removes the nettle. It jams the trigger. “I call you always to bring harmony and peace,” says Mary. “By love, turn everything into good that Satan desires to destroy and possess.”
Love bears everything difficult, for the sake of Jesus.
Only in this way are we completely His and open to the healing that comes with harmony, physically and spiritually.
“There is something about ancient Jerusalem, a disputed city that is so important to people of three faiths, that attracts — or perhaps even causes — a special kind of madness,” wrote Sanchez.
Those sensitive to spiritual warfare know what that “something” is.
[resources: The God of Healing]
[Return to Spirit Daily’s home page]
Upcoming Guadalupe pilgrimage and San Francisco Retreat
The weakness in a person ‘is’ the tiny entry way… how we must pray for our loved ones, who often discard our advice. Thank you for this informative piece of being… we must never tire of prayer, awareness of Holy God within us and within our circumstances…
God bless you!
Regina
it is always important to combine prayer with medication and other natural remedies
====
This is very true indeed. My father in law portrays himself as a "good Catholic" by telling us to go for Mass on Sundays, eventually we found out that he did not even go for communion. But it was years later and many upheavel in my marriage with my wife even nearly going mad that I found out that he is behind it. He goes to witch doctors (in Malaysia, known as Bomohs) to cast spells on my family, buried items in the garden which cause us to quarrel incessantly. We also found out that he is able to cast curses thought his chanting . He woud always ask for the names of my wife’s friends, after which they become friends no more.
He asked to be brought to my work place where he dropped some demonic markers, also in our house. Before my new house was ready, he came a from a few hundred miles (he lives in another state) to "view" the house which we realise was that he place some charms there to cause trouble for us.
He asked to be brought to my children’s school, and after that my children started having problem in school.
At one time he asked my wife to take the children for a swim at a swimming pool at her sisters condominium, on the day the children went to the pool, he asked my wife to ask me to go and do my own things- this I found out later. But something prompted me to stay and keep an eye on my youngest son who was in the pool with a inflatable tube around his armpit area. Suddenly he approached me and started talking a lot to me and I sensed that he was trying to distract me from my son. Something tells me to ignore him and continue to focus on my son. True enough , after his approach, my youngest son fell out of the tubing into the water and I was the only one who saw it. Had I talked to him and focus on him I would have lost my son that day.
I shouted out to my wife that our son has fallen into the deep water , then I dived in to get him. Luckily my eldest son was just near by and my wife shouted to him to pull his brother out of the water.
My wife said he saw the evil look in her father’s eye and also had a vision of Jesus saying , "I won’t let your son drown".
Until today he is still attacking us. We feel it as a coldness on one side of our head which disappear after we prayed and bind it in Jesus’ name. Mysterious pains and ailments that went off ater we prayed and bind it in Jesus’ name.
We had to do Spiritual warfare daily to protect our family. Evil is real.
Sad. You sound so angry and bitter. What a shame.
God bless you Paula. I’m sure Mr. Brown is saying the same thing. May God give you peace.
Trashy? ….LOL
You either don’t know God or know God, because to know God is to know the devil and your comments towards this article are as you do not believe these things are possible.
Near by they took gargoiel’s, how ever it’s spelled, down. Thank God someone said that their a relic of satin. More and more museums of different are coming. There’s one of the Catholic faith and the one to the Jewish we were asked to go to. It had a BIG thing about Pope John Paul II. It was more then just a little about him. It was a BIG thing. Saying how he had Jewish friends and all. Even things I had that I thought were ok happened to be Jewish. I give things usually to a friend who gives them to messianic lads. Oh years ago there was a field behind home. Now it’s apartments, when it was fields there was a small fire. The next day I found a few rosary’s pulled a part. A Cross bent big time. Next to it was the Star of David also bent and a few Prayer Shawl’s in parts burnt. In the center was a Bible burnt so bad I couldn’t tell where it was from. Now I get things at second hand stores of both faiths. Keep the Catholic and give the Jewish to a lad I know who was Jewish and left home. When he found out that he should NOT believe in Jesus. He came to the US and became Catholic asap.