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How Exorcism Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: That's Chuck, and this is stuff you should know. We're
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: about to tell you some stuff you should know, aren't
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: we Chucked? We are? You never intro our title like that.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I like that it's new. I tried it before. I
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: know that you like it, which is inst I loved
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: it to the late and browse you. Yeah, moving on, Chuck.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of a guy named Phillip Kate? Dad? Yes, absolutely,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: he's an author. Correct, Yes, he wrote Blade Runner? Correct well,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I do Android's Dream of Electric Cheap right, which was
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: made into Blade Runner, exactly. And he wrote a Minority
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Report and um, a Scanner Darkly some other ones I
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: have heard of good stuff. Um. And if you can't
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: tell yet, he was a science fiction writer. Um. But
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: one of the more notable things of Dick's life with
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the more, one of the more notable aspects of Dick's
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: life was that, um, at one point he became possessed
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: by a being, another intelligence. He called it like a
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: super alien or something like that. And uh, it basically
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: took him over and got his life in order. He
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: was a total pill head, loved drink wine, really just
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: kind of chased friends off. He just wasn't a really
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: pleasant soul to be around. And this alien kind of
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: comes in and takes him over, and all of a sudden,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: he's like getting you know, back pay from publishers. He's
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: like writing more. He his office is cleaner. I think
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: he started wearing ties and just all around. Basically, this
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: thing got his life in order. And he wasn't scientology
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: or anything no interesting. As a matter of fact, I
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: think he may have been a critic of scientology. I'm
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: not sure. Um, but he uh, he was possessed. He
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  Speaker 1: he believed it till the day he died, that something
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: had taken him over and at the very least was
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: helping him. I've never heard that. Yes, so um, that
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: kind of I think is a really good segue into exorcism. Right,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: this is an exorcism that actually benefited somebody. Well, he
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: was an exercise and I don't think he needed to
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: sure sure now, um, you know, I think for the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: most part, when people feel like we're inhabited by something,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: we feel like it needs to be exercise, right right, Yeah,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: the demons running through yet exactly. So, Um, we kind
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: of in in the Western world in the twenty one century,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: we don't really believe in spirit intrusion much anymore. Right,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: some of us do, some do, true, but for the
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: most part, the average American walking around probably doesn't believe
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that they're going to ever be, you know, taken over
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: by a demon or something like that, or even an
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: angel probably, um, but this isn't the case for much
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of the rest of the world. It's very commonly held
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: spirit intrusion can occur. I remember when we were talking
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: about carrying a bride over the threshold. Spirit intrusion. It
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: can be a bad thing. It can cause disease, illness,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: and um. It kind of makes you wonder. There's this
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  Speaker 1: dividing line that crops up. Is this really just a
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  Speaker 1: misunderstanding of a psychological problem or is psychology missing the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: point when there actually is something going on right at ending?
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: You know, a lot of uh, demonic possessions are really
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: people that are psychologically distressed or sometimes even physically and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: epilepsy and things like that a lot of times are
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: mistaken from parts of the world. Well, with epilepsy in particular,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: you can you can tell you can throw somebody in
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: an m R I machine and I look at the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: parts of their brain and see, you know, oh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: this person is definitely epileptic. Of course, the convulsions often
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: give them away as well. But with you know, UM schizophrenia, say,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: for many many eons, that was viewed as a spirit
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: intrusion or spirit possession, right, which makes sense. I mean,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: you know, these people with associative personality disorder are UM
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  Speaker 1: different people at different times, so you can understand how
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  Speaker 1: that would be mistaken as a UM possession in the past,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I could, sure, But still today I kind of wonder
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  Speaker 1: is it just a clash of worldviews? You know? Maybe?
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: So is is a psychological disorder just another term for
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: spirit possession when they're really both talking about the same
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: thing and doesn't matter? So interesting angle, Thanks buddy. So
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the point is this, UM psychology has its own methods
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  Speaker 1: of exorcism and in deepressants UM psychotherapy. Yes, uh e
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: c T. Electro convulsive therapy, which is still used to
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: this day. Did you know that? I didn't. I think
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: we have the method refined a little more than we
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: used to write, but yeah, it's still they still hook
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: people up at the electrodes and choose them. Actually I
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: did know that because it happened on six ft under
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: and don't tell me, don't tell me. I'm in season three,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: don't tell me. It definitely does not happen on six
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: ft Thank you, thank you for that. Sorry about that,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: no problem. But um, so we've got this method of
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: dealing with disturbance, um through psychology. We also have it
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: through spirituality, and specifically the Catholic Church is really really
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: big on exorcism. There the only church that I know
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of it really still practices it. And yeah, I was
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: raised Catholic, and and as you get older, every you know,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: when you're raised in the Catholic Church, everything seems totally normal.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: This guy is wearing a robe and chanting and burning frankincense,
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  Speaker 1: and everybody else you know is responding with you know,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: some weird you know, mystical words. Right. The thing is
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: is like, as you get older, it becomes stranger and
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: stranger because, as any Catholic knows, the older you get,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the further you get away from the church. Right, Um
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: so you get a little more objective, you get an
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: objective view of it. I think that's not necessarily true
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: for all people, but certainly. Uh so. You know, when
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: you look at the Catholic Church objectively or Catholicism, it's
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: deeply rooted in mysticism. And it doesn't strike me as
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  Speaker 1: odd at all that the Catholic Church is still very
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: much believes in exorcism, in demonic possession. Yeah, I believe it.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Which we should probably give an actual definition of demonic
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: possession as the Catholic Church sees it. Uh, while possession
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  Speaker 1: or exorcism possession. Uh well, I know some of the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: telltale signs. Yeah, let's hear about um. Speaking in tongues
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of times is considered no, no, pardon no, no,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: it's not considered part of a demonic Speaking in tongues
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: is considered a an expression of religious ecstasy. Speaking in
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: foreign languages that one's never encountered, or dead languages. That's
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: that's an example. I actually said. I actually said speaking
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: in foreign tongues. I just said it very quietly. The
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: foreign was the foreign? Was it? Silent um? That is true? Uh?
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  Speaker 1: Knowing things that a person has no way of knowing. Yeah, Like, um,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you know, with the pope's wearing at any given time,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I bet he's wearing a robe and a tall hat.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: That's what I underneath the robe, if you can call that.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I imagine they're gonna be like, yeah, I know, too
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: much physical strength beyond what you normally would have, which
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: we've addressed as well, right, and a violent aversion to God,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the Virgin Mary or across or other you know religious images. Yeah,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: so that's you know, pretty much it. If you can
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: fit all these, then you know there's a chance that
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: you are possessed by the devil as far as the
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: church is concerned. I didn't see in here headspinning around
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: or vomiting p soup or the spider crawl. No, And
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: of course Chuck's referring to the classic horror film The
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: exor System, which I watched actually this past Halloween. Not
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: as scary as I remember, but psychologically thrilling. Yeah. Great.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: And um after researching this, I found that if you
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: take Linda Blair out of the scenes, yes, uh, and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: you just have the exorcism the rights of exorcism that
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: are performed by um Max von Sideau and the other guy.
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  Speaker 1: Um it is it's very accurate. Uh, it's It's pretty
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: much the opposite of the website Garfield minus Garfield, where
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: if you take Garfield out. It turns out that John
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: is either schizophrenic or addicted to methamphetamine, or possessed by
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the devil. Possibly full circle. Yeah, so it's UM's it's
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the it's the opposite of that. It really a Catholic
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: exorcism or right of exorcism is a series of special prayers,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and actually it's a combination of fairly familiar prayers. There's
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: a lot of call and response. Um. There's dousing the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: possessed individual with holy water, using crucifixes and relics, which
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: can be anything anything associated with the saint, including a
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: body part. There's actually the saints, if you were a
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: saint several hundred years ago, you were destined to be
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: chopped up into as many little pieces as possible, instaid
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: to churches around the world. Yeah, relic are huge. Interesting. Yeah,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: well there, you didn't know that either. Well, before this
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  Speaker 1: all happens, there's an investigation. I mean, this is when
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: there's a real threat of a possession, you can actually
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  Speaker 1: lodge an uh A query to the Catholic Church and
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  Speaker 1: they'll send someone out. A lot of times that priests
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: will come with um a psychological evaluator just to rule
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  Speaker 1: out other things. Sometimes I'll go to a medical doctor,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: but they actually do a full fledged investigation, and they said,
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  Speaker 1: I think one in five thousand turns out to be
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  Speaker 1: what they consider to be a real demonic possession or
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: at the very least worth worth using an exorcism, for
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: worth giving a shot. Yeah, I didn't want you to
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  Speaker 1: to get the impression that I think that the church's
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: approach to exorcism it's hokey in anyway. I think they
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: take a very methodical approach they do, and they rule
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: out everything else that it could possibly be. Um. I
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: think if you decide to perpetrate a fraud, uh, you know,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: like you're you're possessed by the devil, you're in for
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  Speaker 1: a really long, painful evaluation process where you really have
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: to be committed to the bit to follow it through
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  Speaker 1: and finally get to the exorcism. And if you're basing
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: it on movies, you'll probably be really disappointed. Um. There's
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: this book that this guy wrote. I cannot remember his
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: name or the name of the book, but um, he
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: was a sociologist who who you know, basically went to
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: exorcisms performed around the country for several years during his
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: research period, and he describes one where a guy named
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Warren who is basically depressed, drinks a lot. Really his
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: life is pretty out of sorts um, and he's come
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: to believe that he's he's possessed by a diabolical presence
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  Speaker 1: I think is the the church vernacular for it um.
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  Speaker 1: And basically the priest just praised for him um. And
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: you know, there's the Holy water and the crucifix and
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: all that, and Warren just kind of sits there looking
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: a little gloomy the whole time. And then that's about that.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: And apparently in the book, Warren reported feeling like something
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: had left him, which is good. It's a good things.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: He said, he felt fine, but it was a fairly
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: anticlimactic spinning or anything. I had that book title. If
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: people want to read, it's called American Exorcism Expelling Demons
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: in the Land of Plenty by Michael uh c u
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: n Eo quin Kuno. Let's go with Cuno catch Cary
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: cascari um. So yeah, they're they're kind of anticlimactic, right,
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  Speaker 1: But if if at the end people like Warren feel
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: like that their their life has changed, that you know,
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  Speaker 1: if it's if it's just using their faith to maybe
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: manipulate them, even even if there's no intentional manipulation. But
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: if that's really what's going on in the most objective view,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: how could how could it hurt? You know? Why why
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: don't we just run around performing exorcisms all the time?
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: I have an answer for you, playing on me sort of,
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  Speaker 1: because there aren't enough priests relate to go around that
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  Speaker 1: are they're capable of doing this. The Catholic Church actually
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: UM appointed ten priest and I think that was already
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  Speaker 1: previously one the only guy doing exorcism, So there's now
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  Speaker 1: eleven UM at that time at least, and they have
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: a group called the International Association of Exorcists. Yeah, they
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: meet every year formaly newsletter. Do you know what I
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: would do to get my hands on that newsletter? Apparently
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: they shared tricks of the trade, tips for one another franccisms. Yeah,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I would love to get my hands on that, right,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I'd love to sit on one of those meetings. But
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: that's a lot of a lot of fun, it is,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: you know, the the that's one reason why, you know,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: we just don't have or the Catholic Church just doesn't
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: have the manpower to go around performing exorcism, right, um.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: But also there's there's a couple other problems with exorcism
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: as far as you know controversy generated by them. One
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: is what we've talked about, the the psychology versus religion clash,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: which has been going on pretty much since medicine came about,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: um and basically labeled everybody else's witches or you know,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: at the very least um simple or what have you,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: archaic primitive. And that's one problem. If if we just
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: ran around performing exorcisms, uh, and there were people who
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: had very treatable psychological disorders, you know, would the exorcism
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: for work or would would pharmaceuticals be better some sort
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: of you know, immersive therapy be better for him? Um,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: So we could actually do damage, which is why the
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: church i imagine has a psychle logical evaluations done. And
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: these are done by professionals from my understanding as well,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: It's not like the priest is like, hey, are you crazy? Right,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: they get a psychiatrist or psychologist outside of the Catholic Church.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: The the other problem is the there there are groups
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: that that do exorcisms for profit. Yeah, and this is
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: where it gets a little Uh, I don't know, greedy,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: possibly fake. Maybe there's one. There's one group, um that
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: is well known for their exorcisms. There's a guy named
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Bob Larson, Bob Larson Ministries. He actually has a show
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: called The Real Exorcist on the Sci Fi Channel. Um,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: that should be your first clue right there, exactly he Um.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: He runs the Spiritual Freedom Church as far as I know, UM,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: and he does exorcisms. I don't know that he actually
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: charges for exorcisms, but I think he's he's really good
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: at um drumming up donations. Well yeah, and he and
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: he does this in front of a crowd and charges
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: for tickets. Does he really? Yeah, because apparently you can
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: get a family rate on your tickets to go see
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: these exorcisms. Okay, gives you a break if you bring
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: the kids along. Well, I was. I was reading on
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the Spiritual Freedom Church website a testimonial from a girl
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: from named Autumn, from my dear esteemed hometown of Toledo, Ohio.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Let's hear it. Apparently the spirit spirit for Spiritual Freedom
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Church rolled through town and held a mass you know,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: exorcism or whatever spectacle, and Um, Autumn, it turned out,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: had been possessed by a several centuries old African woman,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: uh named Mushita. Now Mushita apparently means horror and whatever
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: ancient African vernacular this that her name comes from. And um,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: she basically was pretty much into committing acts of hordem
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: in you know, uh, reverence for an African deity. So
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: she became promiscuous. Yes, it was really Mushida, but it
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: was it was Autumn who was running around committing acts
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: of hord um. This is not my word, by the way,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I actually didn't realize hordam was a word until this
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: is very afternoon. Is that her right there? That's her.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: She's a kind of cute. Yeah. So, um, Autumn goes
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: to see Bob Larson, who exercises the the demons, and
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: apparently you could see a an immediate change in Autumn
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and she was very grateful. So again we we come
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: to this this fine line. As far as I'm concerned,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: if Autumn is no longer running around being promiscuous, as
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: you said, she no longer feels like she's out of
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: control with her life, does it matter whether it was
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: an exorcism or antidepressants, whether she paid for this or not.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I come to Jesus moment and a seeing of the light.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Does it matter? Now, there's all kinds of ways of
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: reaching that moment of clarity. I agree, if you ask me,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I agree. So uh, as far as I'm concerned to
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: each his own sure, that's our motto here. You want
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: to pay, Yeah, it pretty much keeps us out of
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: hot water. So if you want to pay for your exorcism,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: there's plenty of places you can do it. Just go
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: on to a Google search, and I believe you type
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: in exorcists and you will find what you're looking for
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: and good luck. So stick around because we have a
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: new bit here. We like to fill up time as
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: much as possible. We're gonna call it correction time. Right,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: it's a good title. It's coming up right now. Um So, Chuck,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: we have a correction from one of our listeners. Right,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: This was in from a couple of our podcasts. We
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: mentioned this famous study in Massachusetts. Let's go to a
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: clip of Chuck being wrong. So what they've learned is
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: that there was this big study. I now that you
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: love to study, the Farmington heart study. I love this study.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: It's enormous, it's sweeping. This is what a study should
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: be like right, So that's that's me and that's my voice.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: And it is not Armington's. No, it is actually Framingham
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: not even there's no ton involved, there's no farm. It
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: is a frame. And this is pointed out by one
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: of our listeners, Glenna Carpenter Rhodius in thank you Glenna
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: for pointing that out. Yes, Glen warn yourself a new
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Ford focus actually pointing it out. Yeah. So if you
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: want to point out something that we've done wrong or
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: tell us how much you like us or hate us. Yeah,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I'm more like us though, Okay, And you can send
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot
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