Forced exorcism in Hong Kong shopping mall

You don't need to be demon-possessed to experience an exorcism. Just walk into the wrong shopping mall in Hong Kong.

A Taoist master is accused of trying to extort nearly $5,000 for an unsolicited exorcism. From CNNGo:


We're strolling through a shopping mall, minding our own business, when we're suddenly pounced on by a Taoist priest telling us that we're possessed by an evil ghost who is hell-bent on killing us within three days. Temple workers proceed to grab hold of us and an exorcism is performed despite our protests. After an hour of struggle, the evil ghost is purged and we're asked to cough up HK$36,000 for the Taoist priest's good deed.

At least that's the picture that a 23-year-old woman surnamed Tang presented to the police. The priest's disciples even filmed the entire process of the exorcism and put it on Youtube. The woman was held down by five people while the priest covered her head with a red cloth. While she struggled, she was told to keep silent as the priest and his disciples were talking to the ghost.
The forced exorcism is captured on video (see above), and produced -- along with animated dramatization -- by Hong Kong's Next Media. (This is the same group made famous worldwide for the Tiger Woods car crash animation.)

Not quite Linda Blair. But definitely worse than that unsolicited cologne spritz at the mall.


[edit on 12-2-2010 by liquidself]

This is extremely disturbing. The idea of doing The Exorcist for extortion - its so strange. Regardless of whether you believe in this stuff its just wrong on so many levels. How does one get to the point where you do on the spot exorcisms for money - how do you evolve to that? And have they been successful before - it boggles my mind i m afraid.

www.boingboing.net
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by liquidself


Seems hard to accept - that a 'forced' exorcism should be 'paid' for.

One has to wonder about the mentality of the 'spiritual leader' performing these 'benevolent' deeds.

I don't know Chinese language so I can't really comment on the video or judge what she's saying during the video. I also don't know anything about Chinese law but it seems like they could be arrested for assault. We also don't know if she paid it or not. Seems like we really don't know a whole lot about this incident except what that website says happened.

[edit on 12/2/2010 by Iamonlyhuman]

Well, that's...I don't know. What's the word I'm looking for???

Psychotic???

If this is real, then religion has found a new way to make some serious bucks.

I guess the economy is forcing people to come up with "creative ways" of making ends meet.

[edit on 12-2-2010 by EvolvedMinistry]