The fine line split between mental disorders and spiritual possession/ESP is a topic everyone has broached at one point in their life. It is a topic which is controversial, and often makes people uncomfortable. Everyone knows at least one person who claims to be psychic or to have some sort of premonition. Most of the time they are charlatans and use tricks to get money.

Sometimes their powers are inexplicable, such as Uri Geller’s famous spoon bending. Well known parapsychologist, Mark Mauvais also claims to have these powers, often demonstrating his telekinetic prowess and putting up videos on how to check whether you have ESP or not.

I make no claim to being a psychic or having ESP but I will be elaborating on these topics and how they often border mental illness.

Someone would like to read my topic because I will be giving real life examples, using common cultural references and explaining how some of these things work.

There is a mental disorder known as a Split personality disorder which makes a person have several distinct and disconnected personalities. This is often viewed as a sham by some psychologists but it taken very seriously for it shows deeper underlying psychoses. when a person’s alternate personality takes over, they become a  different person: a stranger and they often resort to violent and uncontrollable behaviour.

The opposite may also be true: some cases of spiritual possession have been recorded and these were confused with mental disorder. Words often used by psychologists include religious psychosis, split personality disorders and schizophrenia.

I will go deeper into this topic. I will use examples from my country and how I experienced these first hand. I will also use famous references to which people may have heard or seen.

A few common references including the “The exorcism of Emily Rose”, some cases from Haiti and even Mauritius and Seychelles.

Readers may feel interpellated by some of the topics I speak of. ESP is a topic which evokes a lot of negative responses, because people with Extra sensory perception are often similar to schizophrenics. ESP people often see things which others cannot, as do schizophrenics. The hallucinations which many schizophrenics see are similar: people who are not there, hearing sounds and feeling odd chills.

This is in brief the topic I will cover and I hope it is interesting enough to appeal to all your natures and interest.