The Story of Luann

     Luann (not her real name) was one of the nicest girls you'd ever meet! She was my friend and fellow Christian. We attended the same church in Poughkeepsie (not a real place). The names and places are changed but the story is true. 

      Luann was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, now called dissociative identity disorder - "a mental disorder characterized by at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states." (American Psychiatric Association (2013), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.), Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing, pp. 291–298 ).  Luann was at least two "people," possibly many more. Of course, she seemed to have one body but several personalities.

     "Personalities" are how people interact with the world and its people. It is a difficult characteristic to define but most people know what it is from experience. I prefer to call it "personal uniqueness," and is a trait much like the unique set of fingerprints which each person has. Perhaps, just as fingerprints, personalities are inborn as well. 

     Psychologists consider personalities to be specific behaviors, cognitions, and emotions experienced by who else? Persons. We know that a baby's personality is there at delivery. The gestating baby doesn't obtain personality in the birth canal. The newborn infant behaves, thinks, and obviously expressed emotions. Why would they not? They just squeezed through a Chinese hand cuff head first! Babies are delivered as angry, emotional individuals who act-up to show whose boss. 

     As her penalty for independence, God told Eve, the mother of all, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" (Gen 3-16). That was an understatement; sorrow is more like experiencing Hell, according to most women. How sorrowful is that? The baby soon forgets, but the mother never will.

     The newborn already has experienced personality. Sonograms and 3-D imaging show babies behaving in the womb. Some images have shown twins embracing just as John the Baptist spiritually embraced Jesus from a distance when he was in the womb (Luke 1:44). Both John and Jesus had a developed personality long before they were born. Geselle's Growth Gradients indicate that personalities are a system, and that all systems grow proportionately during development as each system supplements and complements each other. 

     Each person is born with one personality. All babies know who they are! There is no evidence that there they have more than one personality. Sure they cry one moment and are content the next, but that's normal. Everyone does that! I hope that I have established that one personality is the normative and that each person is endowed with one from sometime before birth. 

     Like hearts which commence beating at about 22 days after conception, the heart is developing from conception to beating. Likewise, the personality is dormant until sometime after conception, then it reveals itself. Psychologists have seen personality as early as six months (UICEF; "The Bump"; Patz, Avia). That's when they see what is obvious. Just as the heartbeat, it is in formation before the personality is developed enough to be detected. Let's call that the "personality beat."

     When did Luann obtain more than one personality? She had more than one; I saw at least one more and her husband saw several. Her psychotherapist saw many more!

     One day, a friend said they were praying for Luann. I asked why. She replied, "She has multiple personality disorder." I wasn't surprised because I had seen evidence of that. However, I took exception to it. My quick prognosis was based on scripture. Please examine "The Story of the Man of the Gaderenes."  Dr. Jesus psyche-analyzed the crazy man; Jesus looked into the man's soul and knew what was in there!   

1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. ² And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, ³ Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: ⁴ Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. ⁵ And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. ⁶ But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, ⁷ And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. ⁸ For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. ⁹ And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. ¹⁰ And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. ¹¹ Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. ¹² And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. ¹³ And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. (Mark 5)

     Just as Luann, the man of the Gaderenes was acting crazy, which was obvious, but he wasn't acting! He was having great tribulation - "distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). He was suffering oppression from demons. That's what demons do in people; they create chaos in their personality. The man of Gaderenes (Jeckel) had many personalities (Hydes) (From the Story of Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde). Like the Gaderene, Luann cut herself and was imprisoned just as in the womb. She would curl up in a fetal position just as her embryo had years before. 

     Although Luann was happily married as Luann, one of her other personalities was a bar room tramp. Her loving husband told me that. She wasn't acting crazy, nor was she crazy, she seemed possessed.   

    I told my friend, "She doesn't have multiple personalities; she has demons." My friend looked at me as if I was crazy, as did he pastor to whom she consulted. 

    Not long after, I saw my friend with a book. It was about praying out demons. My friend said the pastor was now counseling Luann for possession. Before that he had bought into the prognosis of the psychiatrist. My friend said, "We prayed out the demon; she's okay now." I responded, "She has more than one; she has legions of demons." She was "the lady of Poughkeepsie" who had legions of demons, I believe.

     There were many demons which needed prayer. Luann confessed Christianity. It appears that the man of Gaderenes was a believer as well as he called on Jesus, "worshiping him from afar." Demons attack believers even more intensely than non-believers because the latter are already "owned." Jesus made him safe from demons, and Jesus had the power to set Luann free.

     As far as I know, the Christians never prayed out any more demons, but he loving husband surely did. By last accounts, she seemed at peace, and her self-destructive behavior had ceased. I truly believe she had been possessed, though, because she and her husband told me her story: Her family had been Satanists in Poughkeepsie. She was raised Satanically, even sacrificing herself sexually to coven members. 

    As far as the community knew, Satanists are anomalies in and around big cities. Around Poughkeepsie were four covens. The local "ghostbuster" on the Poughkeepsie police force told me that! Luann surely was possessed but most people accept psychology as pre-eminent to Christology. 

    While shopping, I met Luann and her husband. She had a skin-head haircut and was on crutches. I teased her about becoming alternate, and asked about the crutches. She was candid: The Satanists, including her father and brother, kidnapped her, cut her hair, and broke her leg backwards. I was told that those were typical Satanic discipline methods.  Luann validated what her life had been before she became a Christian. As a Christian, Satan got payback. The life of any Christian is tribulation. Our legs may not het broken but our will can be! That's what demons try to do.

     I hope that Luann's tribulation is over. I hope the demons were prayed out. My wish is that God has mercy on this tormented Christian's soul, as Jesus had on the man of Gaderenes.

     Another friend of mine and I prayed with another young man who was troubled. He told me that he was possessed. He professed to being a Christian, but faced daily tribulation from "demons" (his words). We prayed a sinners prayer with that young man, although he already confessed Christ. He cried and begged for relief. As a sinful Christian, I didn't have faith enough to defeat principalities. Surely, this was a "mountain" that neither my friend nor I could move. He knew that demons were playing havoc with his mind. Psycholgists would say that he was having cognitive dissonance. He may have been, but I believe that demons were doing it.

     I have other friends who died from "cognitive dissonance," even taking their own lives. Their minds went foul, but I believe demons fouled them. The preacher at one said, "He had his demons." I believe he did!

     I hope Luann's story ends well. It will unless she looks back. Satanism is based on pleasure and doing your will; not God's. We all make choices. When we look to the world for pleasure, it opens the path for demons to come in. Unless we follow the apostle James's advice, we too can be demonized because there is a spiritual war in progress.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. (Jas 4:7-10).

    Before the evils can flee, Christians must believe they exist. Jesus knew they did, yet some still disbelieve. The apostle Paul believed; they were a thorn in the flesh:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephes 6:12).

    Just as Jacob, I would rather wrestle with God and win than with the devil and lose!

Note: In my commentary a few years back, I presented the demonic Simon Magus as Paul's thorn in the flesh. (https://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2014/12/pauls-thorn-in-flesh.html) and (https://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2015/12/simon-magus-was-he-thorn.html).