Exorcism

[rett2]

How is it ideological to specifically Christianity? Virtually every ancient culture and religious tradition believed in demonic possession/spirit possession.

Christianity engaged in aggressive proselytizing and missionary work, as a supremacist religion used to dominate other cultures and ultimately further the goals of colonialization. (unlike many folk religions and cultures that were assimilatory and could coexist with others). As part of that, Christianity declared other religions and practices to be the work of the devil, and its view on possession could fit into that ideology. I didn't claim that belief in possession is unique to Christianity, but rather was focusing on how it seems to be used in this particular ideological way. A latter day example could be when some churches declare yoga or meditation to be satanic.

I don't mean to reduce Christianity only to this aspect of it's practice, but this aspect does exist. Also, other religions in history have declared competitor faiths to be demonic.

From the point of view of main stream science, none of these things exist either, so what would be the point?

The point has to do with how, if you set science aside, people interpret "supernatural" experiences in accordance with preexisting beliefs. For example the great christian mystics had ecstatic visions that they interpreted as "seeing god" or meeting other figures from their religion. Another religion might say that had entered a powerful meditative state but that any visions they had are just expressions of their conditioning. I was wondering how the RCC went about making themselves sure that of all the possible "supernatural" explanations, it just had to be "demonic possession" (the one that fits their world-view best, for instance by recognizing the existence of demons that intervene in the world).