exorcism
Enable an agent to recognise, document and assess practices identified as exorcism while distinguishing religious interpretations, observed events, participant consent and reported outcomes.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to recognise, document and assess practices identified as exorcism while distinguishing religious interpretations, observed events, participant consent and reported outcomes.
Exorcism is a religious ritual intended to expel or repel spirits believed to possess, inhabit, or afflict a person, place, or object, with its meaning and authorization varying across traditions.
It can be Classify a candidate practice against an explicitly attributed definition of exorcism.; Compare local terminology and competing interpretations without collapsing them into one doctrine.; Record the ritual's target, intended change, authority claims and stage.; Identify missing consent information or reported harmful conduct for human review.; Separate observations, spiritual explanations and outcome testimonies.; Link an account to neighbouring models for clinical care, safeguarding, religious institutions or creative works..
Distinguishing features
An account identifies removal or repulsion of an unwanted spiritual presence or influence as an intended purpose; distress or unusual behaviour alone does not identify exorcism.
The practice has a ritual or religious framing attributed to identifiable participants or interpreters; a clinical intervention alone does not qualify.
The record distinguishes a participant's own designation from an outsider's use of the word exorcism.
The intended change concerns an attributed spiritual presence or influence, distinguishing the practice from a general blessing or purification unless the relevant tradition explicitly connects them.
A performed or proposed ritual is distinguished from a possession claim, a theological discussion and a fictional depiction.
Scope
+ Tradition-specific definitions and criteria for identifying an act as exorcism
+ Attributions of possession, attachment or spiritual influence and who makes them
+ Ritual purposes, targets, participants and claimed authority
+ Consent, participant vulnerability and boundaries on permissible action
+ Accounts of ritual performance, reported effects and disputed outcomes
- The existence, taxonomy or powers of spirits as independently established entities
- Clinical diagnosis and treatment of physical or mental health conditions
- Religious ritual generally, including blessings and purification not identified as exorcism
- Detailed instructions for performing an exorcism
- Fictional exorcism narratives as creative works
- Legal adjudication of alleged abuse or misconduct
Characteristics
- Recognition status
- self-designated exorcism | recognised by relevant authority | externally labelled | disputed | undetermined; multiple values permitted Prevents an external label from silently replacing a community's own classification.
- Attributed spiritual condition
- Source-attributed terminology for the unwanted presence or influence; unknown permitted Preserves distinctions among interpretations without asserting that any spiritual condition exists.
- Intended spiritual change
- expulsion | removal of influence | prevention of entry or return | other locally defined purpose | disputed Makes the boundary with protective, purificatory and healing practices inspectable.
- Ritual target
- Person, group, place or object identified as the target, with the identifying source Distinguishes the ritual target from the alleged spiritual agent and from affected participants.
- Officiant authority
- Officiant linked to claimed authorising person, institution, lineage or personal calling; recognition may be contested Allows authority claims to be evaluated within the named tradition.
- Consent status
- affirmed | refused | withdrawn | unclear | not documented; recorded separately for each affected person and stage Religious agreement and consent to particular actions must be distinguishable.
- Practice stage
- proposed | under consideration | scheduled | underway | paused | completed | abandoned | retrospectively reported Separates an intention to perform exorcism from a documented occurrence.
- Outcome account
- Reporter linked to claimed result, observation time, evidence basis and competing accounts Prevents ritual completion or a testimony of relief from being equated with demonstrated supernatural efficacy.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Also registered as vr.tr.exorcism
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 17 findings · 27 questions.
Definitions and boundaries Establishes which sense of exorcism is being modelled and whose criteria identify it.
Recognition requires an attributed definition rather than a universal assumption about possession or ritual.
Local and external designations
Distinguishes a tradition's terminology from translation and outsider classification.
Attributed definition
Record the definition used, its source and whether participants accept the designation exorcism.
- What does exorcism mean to the participants or tradition in this account? definition
- Who applies the label, and is it a local term, a translation or an external classification? provenance
Neighbouring practices
Tests the boundary with possession attribution, protection, purification, healing and representation.
Instance recognition
Identify the intended spiritual change and the evidence that the record concerns an actual or proposed practice.
- What makes this practice exorcism rather than blessing, purification, protective prayer or healing under the definition being used? boundary
- Does the account concern a performed ritual, a proposal, a possession claim alone or a fictional depiction? boundary
Spiritual attribution and discernment Records what is believed to require exorcism and how that interpretation is reached or contested.
An attribution of spiritual influence is central to the practice but must remain distinguishable from observation.
Presence and target
Separates the alleged spiritual presence, its attributed relationship and the ritual target.
Attributed spiritual relationship
Record who attributes an unwanted spiritual presence or influence to whom or what.
- What presence or influence is alleged, and how is its relationship to the target described? definition
- Who makes this attribution, and does the affected person endorse, reject or remain uncertain about it? provenance
Grounds and alternatives
Preserves the basis for spiritual interpretation alongside competing explanations.
Discernment record
Separate reported experiences and observed events from the interpretations used to justify exorcism.
- Which observations, testimonies or tradition-specific criteria were used to propose exorcism? provenance
- What alternative interpretations were considered, and which observations remain unexplained or disputed? boundary
Ritual form and authority Describes the practice's intended operation, recognised form and officiating relationships without supplying performance instructions.
Similar outward actions may carry different purposes and authority within different traditions.
Ritual purpose and form
Captures the declared purpose and descriptive identity of the rite.
Identified rite
Record the rite's name, intended spiritual change and relationship to a prescribed or locally developed form.
- What change is the rite intended to accomplish, and how do participants describe that change? definition
- Which text, oral tradition or account identifies the ritual form used? provenance
Officiating and recognition
Locates authority claims within the relevant religious or communal setting.
Authority and contestation
Record who leads the practice, the basis of their claimed authority and any limits or disputes.
- Who claims authority to perform this exorcism, and who recognises or contests that claim? provenance
- What tradition-specific conditions determine whether this officiant may undertake this rite? action
Participation and protection Records voluntary participation, personal boundaries and conduct affecting the target or others.
A religious interpretation does not by itself establish an affected person's agreement to the proposed actions.
Consent and voice
Distinguishes the affected person's wishes from those of family, officiants and institutions.
Specific and continuing consent
Record consent to participation and particular actions, including uncertainty, refusal and withdrawal.
- What has each affected person agreed to, and how was that agreement established? provenance
- Can the person decline or stop participation, and how are their objections interpreted and acted upon? action
Conduct and care boundaries
Makes reported coercion, injury and interference with other care visible without diagnosing participants.
Harm and intervention record
Record concrete conduct and its effects separately from religious explanations or claimed ritual necessity.
- Does the account report restraint, injury, deprivation, threats or interruption of clinical care, and what supports that report? provenance
- What reported circumstances require stopping participation or involving an appropriate care or safeguarding service? action
Occurrence and outcome evidence Separates the course of a ritual from claims about what it achieved.
Performance, religious completion, reported relief and causal efficacy are distinct judgements.
Episode and completion
Defines the occurrence being recorded and the criteria used to mark its status.
Ritual episode boundary
Record whether the account concerns one session, repeated sessions or a broader course of ritual activity.
- What marks the beginning and end of this exorcism episode, and are repeated sessions treated as the same undertaking? boundary
- Who declared the rite completed, paused or abandoned, and on what stated grounds? provenance
Reported effects and confidence
Preserves different outcome accounts and the limits of the evidence supporting them.
Outcome attribution
Record reported changes, assessment timing and competing causal interpretations without resolving supernatural claims by assumption.
- What changes were reported by the affected person, officiant and other observers, and at what intervals after the rite? measurement
- What supports attributing those changes to the exorcism, and what concurrent events or conflicting accounts limit that attribution? provenance
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- This describes the religious practice, not a fictional genre or a claim that spirits or possession have been empirically established.
- Exorcism is also a comparative scholarly label; applying it across traditions can obscure local distinctions between expulsion, appeasement, protection, and healing.
- The Catholic references are recalled, not checked here; their exact wording, editions, and applicability should be verified before formal use.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of exorcism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Exorcism of a person believed to be possessed
- Exorcism directed at a place or object
- Roman Catholic major or solemn exorcism
- Roman Catholic minor exorcisms associated with Christian initiation
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of exorcism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Roman Catholic Church: Code of Canon Law, canon 1172, requires express permission from the local ordinary for a priest to perform exorcisms over persons believed to be possessed.
- Roman Catholic Church: De exorcismis et supplicationibus quibusdam is the liturgical book governing the rite of exorcism and associated supplications.
- Roman Catholic Church: Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1673, distinguishes exorcism from the treatment of illness, especially psychological illness.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of exorcism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Religious responses to experiences interpreted as spirit possession or spiritual affliction.
- Christian initiation rites, in which minor exorcisms need not imply that the recipient is possessed.
- Ritual protection or purification of places and objects believed to be affected by spirits.
- Pastoral and communal practices that interpret distress through a religious framework.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of exorcism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Attributing illness or distress solely to possession can delay appropriate assessment and care.
- Coercion, restraint, beating, forced ingestion, or deprivation during abusive practices can cause serious injury or death.
- Labelling someone possessed can produce fear, stigma, family conflict, or social exclusion.
- Practitioners may exploit vulnerable people financially, sexually, or through claims of spiritual authority.
- Claims of successful spirit expulsion lack a generally accepted independent verification method.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of exorcism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Roman Catholic practice formally distinguishes major exorcism requiring authorization from minor exorcisms used in initiation.
- Some Pentecostal and charismatic Christian communities use deliverance practices whose terminology, procedures, and oversight differ from Catholic exorcism.
- Islamic ruqyah can address perceived spirit affliction through recitation and supplication, but also serves purposes broader than exorcism.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of exorcism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- spirit possession - Possession is an attributed state or experience; exorcism is an intervention intended to end or prevent it.
- deliverance ministry - Deliverance can include a broader range of prayers against perceived spiritual oppression; whether it constitutes exorcism depends on the community's terminology.
- ritual purification - Purification removes perceived impurity or restores ritual fitness without necessarily addressing an inhabiting spirit.
- faith healing - Faith healing seeks recovery through religious means and need not involve expelling spirits.
- ruqyah - Ruqyah is Islamic recitation or supplication for protection or healing; only some applications concern expelling perceived possessing spirits.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of exorcism this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Which tradition-specific definitions and local terms should anchor this registry entry, given its missing definition?
- Should preventive rites fall within exorcism here, or be linked to a neighbouring model of spiritual protection?
- How should deliverance, purification and healing practices be mapped when practitioners disagree with the label exorcism?
- Which sources adequately represent affected people's perspectives alongside institutional, officiant and external accounts?
- What evidence standards can support comparisons of reported outcomes while preserving distinct religious meanings of success?