Real Exorcist And "The Rite"

Found this interesting. See the full article
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-exorcist-20110127,0,2119132.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_c


The Rite' is based on a real priest trained in exorcism
Father Gary Thomas, based in Saratoga, Calif., served as an advisor. He says he has exorcised demons from five people.


By Susan King, Los Angeles Times

January 27, 2011
"...The best way to agitate a demon, Thomas says, is to pray over the subject; the person's face, he explains, will begin to distort as the demon manifests itself, something that the filmmakers utilized for a sequence in "The Rite."

"There is a point when Anthony Hopkins, you see his head look very unnatural in the way it is turning," Thomas said. "That's very normal. When you pray you hurt the demon, and the demon oftentimes will manifest itself in a very serpentine way."

Thomas recalled an occasion when he was visited by a young Venezuelan woman who had been involved in palm readings for several years. "I was beginning to do some deliverance prayers. Within a few minutes she began to tremor and her facial countenance began to change. You saw a snake. She began sticking her tongue out like a snake and hissing and rolling her eyes. She coiled herself up.

"Her mother and father began to restrain her a bit. I went to get the Eucharist. The woman almost jumped out the window [at the sight of the Eucharist]. Her parents held her down. One minute you could see the demon, the next minute it was her. She kind of came back. I said, 'Can you take the Eucharist?' She said, 'I'm not sure, but I'll try.' As I offered it to her, she resisted. I said, 'Just open your mouth.' All I had to wash it down was holy water."

If Thomas determines the person has a demonic attachment, he has a number of methods to free him or her before resorting to an exorcism. "You never try that first," Thomas says. "You use other means of protection — sacraments, prayer, the Eucharist. What you want the person to do is say [the demon is] not welcome, it is not wanted, so go away. The person cooperates by staying close to God through prayer, through the sacraments."