Philippines capital hosts a centre to train priests and clergy in exorcism

Asia's only dedicated exorcism centre, designed to train Philippine priests and clergy from across the region, sits just off a busy thoroughfare in the capital, Manila.

Inside, neatly made-up rooms for visiting priests line warmly lit halls that lead to a chapel where the 400-year-old ritual takes place.

Holy relics employed in the proceedings line one wall, another features a one-way mirror that allows family members and novice exorcists to observe.

Father Jose Francisco Syquia says the St Michael Centre for Spiritual Liberation and Exorcism, which opened five months ago, was built because "cases were piling up".

Trauma driven by bullying, sexual abuse, and the pain of separation as family members leave for work abroad has increasingly opened the door to spiritual attacks, he says.

"We had to find a more permanent and secure and private place to pray over people," says Syquia.

What make the centre unique is its function as an effective school for exorcists, with Syquia saying he does not know of any other such institution in the world.

The two-storey facility was built largely with donations from local families of the previously afflicted.

Syquia says priests from countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and India are already lining up for training.

A key element, he says, is discerning the difference between psychological and spiritual problems.

While the centre operates without strict Vatican oversight, it follows long-standing church rules governing exorcism, including mandatory vetting by mental health professionals.

"We have clinical psychologists. We have a psychiatrist ... There are also neurologists, so they work hand in hand with us," says Syquia.

Still, he insists he knows a demonic possession when he sees one, adding that he personally exorcised a demon just a week ago.

"You will see a change in behaviour ... a different consciousness. Something else takes over a person."

Syquia says that when it comes to the spiritual world, humans need “something beyond science".

But attempts to draw that distinction have long worried the mental health community.

"If a condition isn't recognised as medical, it delays appropriate treatment," says Christopher French, a psychologist and emeritus professor at the University of London.

"It's more dangerous to accept the supernatural explanations," he warned, noting that conditions ranging from schizophrenia to Tourette's syndrome were once interpreted as spirit possession.

The Philippines has roughly one psychiatrist for every 200,000 people in the archipelago, according to the World Health Organization. Some provinces have none at all.

A Manila-based psychiatrist, Dr Kathryn Tan, says given the choice between an exorcist and a mental health professional, many in the heavily Catholic country will choose the former.

"If it's an exorcism ... you're a victim, but if you're brought to a psychiatrist, there's a lot of shame," she says.

Many of her own patients came only after first visiting indigenous healers, Tan says, viewing psychiatry as a "last resort".

She says alleged possessions are often accompanied by symptoms of psychosis.

But Tan insists that Philippine psychiatrists are not seeking to "compete with the Catholic Church", but rather to bridge the gap between culture and science.

"It's about ... compassion and empathy and trying our best to understand without judgement what our patients are experiencing," she says.

Both Tan and French agree that cultural sensitivities need to be respected in treatment.

"You can shape a treatment to fit the belief system without explicitly endorsing it," French says, conceding that an exorcism might even have a beneficial placebo effect in some cases.

Tan says she keeps an "open mind" about the supernatural and that it is not surprising when people seek spiritual explanations for something they cannot readily define.

"Perhaps this is our way of trying to control the unknown," she says.

Inside his office, Father Syquia says he is confident science and faith could coexist.

"We're ... focusing on the spiritual dimension. But of course, the body is always part of that," he says.

He concedes that a greater national investment in mental health care might even lighten his own load.

"If psychology and psychiatry, if proper mental and emotional health (are) fostered in our country, there will be (fewer exorcism) cases," he says.

"Science is a gift from God."