Retired Pastor
We
gave up on churches and reverted to
searching online
for 'deliverance ministries,'
most of which remained freak shows run by
con men who charge money to supposedly cast out demons. An exception was a
very old retired pastor and his wife in a neighboring state whose
"ministry"
didn't charge money.
I called the retired pastor, who after hearing about Kristin, invited us to come, so we drove to their house. Their front lawn was unkempt, their living room was dark and cold, and the pastor and his wife welcomed us with the warmth of police detectives inviting suspects into an interrogation room.
After hearing Kristin's story in greater detail, the retired pastor said he just cast out demons; he neither knows about dissociative identity disorder nor believes alters exist. He then spent all morning and afternoon commanding demons to come out of Kristin. I was impressed with the stamina of the retired pastor, who yelled at the top of his lungs for much of that time.
Kristin made a lot of guttural noise and her thorax heaved a lot. She was exhausted but looked more hurt than freed by the end of the afternoon, when the retired pastor suddenly declared that she has been cleansed of all demons. He and his wife then sat back in their chairs and glared at me in silence as if I had done something wrong or owed them something. I had brought $200 in an envelope to thank them for their ministry. When I handed the envelope to the pastor, he took it unopened into another room, presumably opened it there, then returned and finally smiled for the first time all day.
As we pulled out of their drive way, I asked Kristin if all of the demons were indeed out of her. She shook her head, which didn't surprise me.
The following week, we drove to another part of our state to see a pastor who specializes in integrating alters. When we arrived at his house, which was in a rural area, he met us out in front and then took us into his basement, which had been converted into a nice office, through a small door at the back of his house.
To start the session, the pastor invited whichever alter who wants to come up to come up and present herself. He spoke in a remarkably gentle and patient manner to the alter who presented herself, had her reply to his questions, and was good with her and several others who followed. Kristin and I learned about alters who had never identified themselves to us, and a couple of them even seemed to integrate during the session.
The pastor had put us on a clock. As soon as the alarm rang to signal the end of our session, his gentle demeanor changed into one of seriousness, he stood up, turned to me and said, "And my money?" When I originally contacted him, he had mentioned that his is a "ministry" but he charges $35 per hour. I had told him that would be fine, brought and gave him $80 for the two hour session, but was disappointed that he seemed rather focused on money.