Question: what is the difference between 'demon' and 'devil'? I typically heart them used as synonymes.

1) Exorcism by a priest, you just hold someone down while reading from the bible and commanding the demon to leave in the name of god.  As for where the practice comes from I can't really say.  I'd guess this would answer part of your second question though, in that it predates the "Split" therefore most likely all abrhamic religions can drive out demons in the name of god.  In general the abrahamic religions are a lot "nicer" too each other, usually thinking there are some exceptions for each other. 

2) I explained how they "work".    It's a lot like the Placebo effect.  Convince people that by "taking the demon" out of them, that their pain will lessen/their "evil" actions will be less tempting/ Something else.

It often works... at least for the intermediate

3)  A relgious group can claim that demonic possessions only happen where the religion is, because the Devil is only intersted in corrupting the faithfull.  Verus some modern psychologists who have no explination for why DID really only happens with any large numbers in the United Staes.  (Though is increasingly diagnosed in europe.)

Truth is, Dissossiative Identity Disorder is likely CAUSED by therapists who unintentionally coach them to treat each emotion or set of feelings as a "different personality."

Well

A) Nothing described there qualifies as torture.

B) The vast majority of exorcisms happen at a persons request.

C) Exoricims happen a lot more in europe then you'd think... including western europe.  The only times they ever get coverage is when someone dies.  Just like basically every homeopathic or medical procedure for that matter.

Religious fanaticism is fanaticism related to a person's, or a group's, devotion to a religion. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. What constitutes fanaticism in another's behavior or belief is determined by the core assumptions of the one doing the evaluation. As such, there is currently no constant academic standard for what defines a fanatical religious position.

No.

Like I said, isn't really medically explained.

The majority of exorcisms are done at the persons behest by people who were close to them their entire lives.  There really aren't many, if any cases of exorcisms caused against peoples will.

In general, the scientific opinion is that it's one of three things.

1)  I actually forget the scientific name is for it.  Though in general it's described as "Believers effect".  Like how most evangelists spasm when a preist channels into them the word of the lord or whatever they're doing.

It's thought the "Demon possession" might have been born out of this.  IE they made some mistakes that go against what they believe, and rationalized it as being "out of their control" and a demon made them do it.... much how some people rationalize their inability to give up addictions or other bad habits they have.  Demon essentially replaced addiction.  These people are represented by those that have exorcisms, then grow up normal people  of that faith.  (Of which, there actually are quite a bit.)

This might actually be a reason why there are a number of successful exorcisms.   The person suddenly feels "freed" of the demon, tricking them into giving up the negative things they were doing because they suddenly feel like they have way more power and self control. 

That and other "Placebo" like effects anyway, since exorcisms actually are known to stop pain and the like too for some people.

2) People trying to get out of trouble.  Like the above, but exorcism is seen as a way to get out of disapointment from others/punishment/hard feelings.  Considering the  great lengths you go through, this is likely expected to be the smallest group.  In general these guys are usually people who are represented by children, who grow up and move away, people who get "possessed"  twice and refuse exoricsm the second time, or just are often "Possessed".Sometimes they can transition into group 1.

3) Remanifestation of the disorder coincidentally during exorcism.  The likelyness of this really depends on the disorder.  The group of people effected like this are probably between groups 1 & 3 and likely are the "failed" cases of exoricisms.

People generally like to blame Dissociative Identity Disorger for the majority of exorcisms... but ironically if you ask most psychologists they would say Dissociative Identity Disoder doesn't really exist or if it does... is extremely rare as there seems to be totally regional.  (IE Split personality disorder/ what most people incorrectly define as schitzophrenia.)  Amusingly DID is kinda like Psychologys version of Demonic possession. 

In 1944, there were 76 cases of DID ever... vs like... I don't even know the number now, but lets just say it's increased by over 100,000% in occurence.  Well, only in the countries that believe in DID.  Just how demon possession generally only happens in countries that believe in it.  Though at least exorcist believers have an excuse for it.  (IE: Targeting the faithful.) 

It's actually considered to not be that high because Exorcism success rates are actually usually pretty high... espiecally in the Catholic Church which mandates that psychiatric evaluations must happen before any exorcism so as to avoid the mentally ill being exorcised.

None of those really explains Huaxiong's case.  Most likely people would see it as a case 1 and that the decline in "spirtuality" was mostly internalized and slow leading to an eventually loss in belief which was then put on a demon.

No.

Like I said, isn't really medically explained.

The majority of exorcisms are done at the persons behest by people who were close to them their entire lives.  There really aren't many, if any cases of exorcisms caused against peoples will.

In general, the scientific opinion is that it's one of three things.

1)  I actually forget the scientific name is for it.  Though in general it's described as "Believers effect".  Like how most evangelists spasm when a preist channels into them the word of the lord or whatever they're doing.

It's thought the "Demon possession" might have been born out of this.  IE they made some mistakes that go against what they believe, and rationalized it as being "out of their control" and a demon made them do it.... much how some people rationalize their inability to give up addictions or other bad habits they have.  Demon essentially replaced addiction.  These people are represented by those that have exorcisms, then grow up normal people  of that faith.  (Of which, there actually are quite a bit.)

This might actually be a reason why there are a number of successful exorcisms.   The person suddenly feels "freed" of the demon, tricking them into giving up the negative things they were doing because they suddenly feel like they have way more power and self control. 

That and other "Placebo" like effects anyway, since exorcisms actually are known to stop pain and the like too for some people.

2) People trying to get out of trouble.  Like the above, but exorcism is seen as a way to get out of disapointment from others/punishment/hard feelings.  Considering the  great lengths you go through, this is likely expected to be the smallest group.  In general these guys are usually people who are represented by children, who grow up and move away, people who get "possessed"  twice and refuse exoricsm the second time, or just are often "Possessed".Sometimes they can transition into group 1.

3) Remanifestation of the disorder coincidentally during exorcism.  The likelyness of this really depends on the disorder.  The group of people effected like this are probably between groups 1 & 3 and likely are the "failed" cases of exoricisms.

People generally like to blame Dissociative Identity Disorger for the majority of exorcisms... but ironically if you ask most psychologists they would say Dissociative Identity Disoder doesn't really exist or if it does... is extremely rare as there seems to be totally regional.  (IE Split personality disorder/ what most people incorrectly define as schitzophrenia.)  Amusingly DID is kinda like Psychologys version of Demonic possession. 

In 1944, there were 76 cases of DID ever... vs like... I don't even know the number now, but lets just say it's increased by over 100,000% in occurence.  Well, only in the countries that believe in DID.  Just how demon possession generally only happens in countries that believe in it.  Though at least exorcist believers have an excuse for it.  (IE: Targeting the faithful.) 

It's actually considered to not be that high because Exorcism success rates are actually usually pretty high... espiecally in the Catholic Church which mandates that psychiatric evaluations must happen before any exorcism so as to avoid the mentally ill being exorcised.

None of those really explains Huaxiong's case.  Most likely people would see it as a case 1 and that the decline in "spirtuality" was mostly internalized and slow leading to an eventually loss in belief which was then put on a demon.

I really am not sure if you're honestly debating this or not, but I'll assume you're serious, so:

1. There is simply no way she could've been killed. Not to mention, there is no way we could possibly allow such harm to happen. We value human life more than you can imagine...especially that of a family member.

2. We never even laid a hand on her...however, she reacted in a most unusual manner after hearing certain verses, and she turned violent at one point. Just simply keep her pinned until she calms down. She even said her violent reactions were completely against her will (and even said she's aware to what's going on even during this state of 'posession'). From my understanding, people who are diagnosed with illnesses like schizophrenia are not aware to all of their actions.

3. She went for medical and psychiatric help, just fyi, to see if there could be another explanation for this...and it came up with no results. Biggest waste of time ever.

4. If all that isn't enough, and you still want to assume we just wanted to force the religion on her...she wasn't even the initial focus of the exorcism. It was me, my brother, and my mother who were the ones meant to be checked for spirits. Especially my brother. He was the main focus of the sheikh until my aunt just suddenly started having some most unusual spasms after water (it was just sink water taken from the house) was sprinkled at everyone.

I guess so :B

But really, it all comes down to what you define as religious fanaticism. If you describe it as taking your beliefs to a point where you take action on them in counter-social ways (such as Ghandi's fast), then I believe it is fine so long as it is properly directed. If you define religious fanaticism to be any form of violent behavior in the name of religion then for the most part I can only agree with you that it is counter-positive.

Of course, if you want, we could instead stay with a vague definition of it all :P