DID SOME KIND OF PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER CAUSE LOURDES VISIONS?

Lourdes is in France. It nestles among the Pyrenees. In 1858, a destitute asthmatic child of thirteen, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed she saw the Virgin Mary in a grotto or cave at the dump of Massabielle eighteen times between the 11th of February and July 18th. Today Lourdes is renowned for its miraculous healings

Of the first apparition she declared,

Without thinking of what I was doing I took my Rosary in my hands and went on my knees. The Lady made with Her head a sign of approval and Herself took into Her hands a Rosary which hung on Her right arm. When I attempted to begin the Rosary and tried to lift my hand to my forehead, my arm remained paralysed, and it was only after the Lady had signed Herself that I could do the same. The Lady left me to pray all alone; She passed the beads of Her Rosary between Her fingers but She said nothing; only at the end of each decade did She say the “Gloria” with me.

When the recitation of the Rosary was finished, the Lady returned to the interior of the rock and the golden coloured cloud disappeared with Her. As soon as the Lady had disappeared Jeanne Abadie and my sister returned to the Grotto and found me on my knees.

Catholic theology says Mary was sinless and so would not say the Lord's Prayer with its pleas for forgiveness of sin. Nor would she say the Hail Mary if she was Mary.

Bernadette is certainly saying she was controlled by something when she kneels and she takes her rosary. For months, she called the entity aquero, that thing. It was not her reacting to what she thought was Jesus' mother. She tries to lift her arm to cross herself but it won't move. "My arm remained paralysed" thus she shows that she had some kind of seizure.

Catholic theology says visions are only messages from God pointing to the Bible and the Church. It is like, "If you wish to learn go to them". A vision then that possesses you is definitely out for it has to respect your autonomy. It is not there for itself but for the Bible and the Church and to advocate proper respect for God's truth. The Church argues that demons can control a person's limb or body. Yet it just ignored anything that indicated demonic origin for this apparition.

Many visions can be explained by a number of factors. What may start off as an illusion may be continued on propped up by wishful thinking and imagination and false memory.