Gabriele Amorth was born on May 1, 1925, in Modena, Italy.
He was raised in a devout Catholic family and attended seminary school in Rome, where he studied philosophy and theology. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1954 and began serving in various parishes throughout Italy.
Now comes the interesting part...
In 1986, Amorth was appointed chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, a position he held for over three decades until his death in 2016.
During his time as an exorcist, he claimed to have performed tens of thousands of exorcisms, and he was known for his rigorous approach to the practice. He believed that possession by demons was a real and present danger, and he often criticized the Catholic Church for what he saw as a lack of support for exorcists.
Amorth also published several books on exorcism, in which he shared his experiences as an exorcist and offered his thoughts on the nature of evil and the spiritual world.
He was a controversial figure in the Catholic Church, and his methods and beliefs on exorcism were often at odds with official Church doctrine. He believed that exorcism was a powerful tool in the fight against evil, and he advocated for a more aggressive approach to the practice than many other Catholic priests. He was also critical of the Vatican for what he saw as a lack of support for exorcists and their work.
I first found out about this enigmatic fellow last week, while I browsed my YouTube feed in search of a quick curiosity bite as I waited for my lovely bride at the bank.
YT offered me the trailer of Russell Crowe's brand new movie "The Pope's Exorcist," in which he plays the lead character based on Gabriele Amorth.
The trailer is hair-raising. Horrifying, actually. I don't know what it is about exorcism, but I find it a lot more terrifying than gory horror movies like Friday the 13 or Nightmare on Elm Street.
Still the NLPer in me can't help but take over...
"Possession"... Hmmm, that's a nominalization...
"If everything is a state, then it's just a change of state..."
"What happens if you make a radical change in the person's physiology?"
It's one thing to watch scenes from the bench. I bet it's another entirely to be in front of someone in that state.
And that's where the modeler in me kicks in.
When you look past the veil of words (exorcism) and the emotions they evoke (what comes to mind and how do you feel when you think of the word "exorcism"?), it's all process.
And if indeed there is such a process labeled "exorcism" that leads a subject from a before "possessed" state to an after "freed" state, it can be modeled.
(Provided, of course, the modeler is able to manage his or her state.)
No matter what the process is, if there is a pattern and if there is consistency, the process can be modeled.
I'm pretty sure it's much easier (and way more profitable) to model business and communication skills than exorcism when it comes to engineering breakthroughs for your clients.
