European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 16, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine by Kay Bartlett associated Pressa Connecticut psychiatrist who wrote a Book describing How he participated in two exorcisms and twice encountered satan remembers How a Friend of his Mother s once described him. That was the Little boy who was always talking about things he should t have been talking about the woman commented. Or. M. Scott Peck of new Preston who graduated Magna cum laude torn Harvard in 1958, is still at it. Peck whose first Book. The Road less travelled sold 1.5 million copies also wrote people of the lie. In which he tells about the exorcisms and says evil is a specific form of mental illness that scientists should be studying like other mental diseases. In people of the lie. Which has sold 300,000 copies and is the More controversial Book Peck begins with the words this is a dangerous  the chapter on the two exorcisms while guarded is dramatically descriptive and Peck in an interview at his Lakeside White colonial Home does t want to elaborate. You really had to be there to see it he says. I said that in the Book. It made me realize even further the Inadequacy of  each exorcism was conducted by a team he says two psychologists three Lay people and a minister. Since his Book came out Peck says he s Learned of three other respected psychiatrists who have participated in exorcisms. Pock predict thai within a decade demonic Possession will be a psychiatric diagnosis. He agrees with Malachi Martin an expert on exorcisms that 1,000 exorcisms a year Are conducted in the United states in the dark of night without the Church s Blessing. Peck seems an unlikely exponent of exorcism. He grew up in privileged circles had his very own auntie mame. Who at 13 plied me with Champagne caviar and  Peck simmered with John Marquand studied near Archibald Mallesh at Harvard and always Drew Praise for his wilting skills. He got a degree from the Case Western Reserve University school of Medicine in 1963 and until 1972 served in the . Army As assistant Chloel psychiatry and neurology consultant to the surgeon general. He retired As a lieutenant colonel and began devoting Lull time to private practice in Litchfield  s philosophy was mostly hindu and he leaned toward the Eastern religions until he became a Christian in 1980. He was baptized in a non denominational be Homony performed by a North Carolina methodist minister in an episcopal Convent. The psychiatrist is firm in his insistence that he encountered satan. He described one possessed patient As actually becoming serpentine in appearance with hooded eyelids and the other As becoming so grotesque and inhuman that Peck when he tried later in front of a Mirror was unable to contort his face into such a diabolic Grimace. In us of Lect of we got rid of tour different demons each representing a particular lie he says. After getting rid of these four there Only seemed to be two Tefu he demons of lust and hate. Those two were surprises to the team. The demons spoke in the third hereon whether that reflects Somthong about Demon s fall to l Don t know but it hid behind  at the end of the first exorcism when a team member suggested the spirit must really hate Jesus the str med in what Peck describes As a Silky oily Wlch we Don t hate Jesus we ust test  this was an uneducated untutored  Peck Savl there s no Way this uneducated patient would Taw used he i biblical reference to satan testing  he says. The psychiatrists and psychologist who wrote said they had used the word evil in their minds and left guilty about in and they were glad i had written the Book. The psychological risks Are far worse than the professional  he says. There Are risks in just seeing that kind of stuff. When the demons of contusion started i just Felt my brain had turned to scrambled eggs. I was Able to protect myself through psychoanalytic training. I said my god Scott whal s happening to you i went in a Corner and got a yellow pad and took notes like a psychiatrist " Peck eels the chapter on exorcism has actually Hurt the Sale of the Book. There Are a lot of psychiatric disorders far More serious and difficult to treat than Possession he says he s far More concerned with group evil the threat of nuclear War americans Lack of Community society s specialization the evolution of Man toward his salvation. Peck As a result of his first Book has become something of a celebrity but not. He insists a guru if people want to touch my Robes i can Send them to the  says Peck the Christian. The people who come to my lectures and read my books Don t buy everything that Scott Peck has to say and that s what keeps them from becoming groupies " the Road less travelled was published in 1978 and got Only one review albeit a Good one by Phyllis Theroux. Slowly through word of Mouth it became a Best seller. The Book integrates traditional psychiatry with spiritual insights. He suggest for instance that original sin was not the eating of the Apple but the laziness Adam and eve displayed in not asking god. To whom they had Access Why they should t partake of this forbidden fruit. Today Peck has All but discontinued his private practice and spends his time lecturing giving workshops preaching sermons and writing he also has just published his third Book. What return can i make besides his lecture tour. Peck wants to Start n foundation to teach americans How to have n sense of Community a need he feels s missing in their lives for the first time he is in a fund Raiser position. I m now the highest paid shrink in the  says Peck but for the first time i m in the position of a  Speaks of the personal f the exorcisms risks the entire it s one of the reasons Peck won t monday december 16, 19bs the stars and stripes Page 13