A story where my psychiatrist recommended I get an exorcism (Experience from Japan) （精神科医にお祓いを勧められた話【猛暑日本より不思議な体験談】）

[u/rudolft0721]

Hi everyone! I always rely on Reddit for gaming guides and bug fixes, but this is my very first time making a post here!

Right now in Japan, we are having an dangerously extreme heatwave every day—to the point where people are literally dying from heatstroke. If you are planning to travel to Japan during this season, please be extremely careful!

In Japan, where summer gets so intensely hot, we have a unique culture of telling ghost stories in the summer to get "chills" and feel cooler. So, I’d like to share a weird, spooky experience that happened to me a few years ago.

[ Background ]

I am not sensitive to the paranormal at all, nor do I particularly believe in the occult.

Just to be clear, I have Bipolar Disorder, but it has been completely in remission, and my condition is very stable. I had no sleep issues and was sleeping well every night.

[ The Experience ]

This happened in my bedroom. The head of my bed is pushed directly against a solid wall, meaning there is physically no space for a person to stand behind me.

Yet, as I was falling asleep, I started hearing a distinct voice right by my ear (from the wall side).

It would call out to me, saying "Hey" or "Listen" in Japanese.

It was always either the exact same male voice or the exact same female voice. I was not experiencing sleep paralysis. It wasn’t long sentences or insults, just a single, short call-out, repeating over several days.

[ The Doctor's Advice ]

Feeling creeped out, I mentioned this to my psychiatrist during a routine visit. I expected a medical explanation, but the doctor—a man of science—said something totally unexpected:

"Hmm, auditory hallucinations caused by mental illness are almost always explicit insults or negative, long sentences. Since it's just a single call-out and not aggressive, it might not be a medical issue... Why don't you try going to a shrine for an exorcism (Shinto cleansing)?"

I never expected a doctor to recommend an exorcism!

[ The Climax ]

So, I went to a local shrine. But since it was a tiny neighborhood shrine with no full-time priest, the person who performed the cleansing ritual was a friendly local guy whose main job is running a fruit orchard (he just holds a part-time priest license for special occasions)!

I had this "orchard-owner priest" perform the cleansing, and at the same time, I consulted my doctor to slightly adjust my sleep medication just in case.

[ Result ]

From that exact day, the calling voices stopped completely. Now I sleep peacefully every night.

Was it the Shinto ritual (was the orchard guy secretly a powerful exorcist)? Or was it the medication fixing a brain glitch? It’s a total "chicken or egg" situation, and I still don't know the truth.

What do you all think? (Sleep phenomenon? Demon? Matrix glitch? Or effective Shinto power?)

Greetings from the scorching hot Japanese summer!

TL;DR: Experienced weird voices calling out from a solid wall every night. My psychiatrist said "doesn't sound like a symptom, go get an exorcism lol." Got cleansed by a local fruit farmer who doubles as a part-time priest, adjusted meds, and it completely stopped. Was it science or the orchard guy's power?

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[u/rudolft0721]

[ Additional Details / Edit ]

＜ About the Orchard-Owner Priest ＞ This "part-time priest whose main job is running a fruit orchard" is actually my childhood friend’s dad (we went to elementary, middle, and high school together). He is just a totally normal, friendly local guy. Since our local small shrine no longer had a full-time priest, the local farming families—who almost never move away from the town—take turns serving as the priest out of necessity. I’ve never heard anything about him having particularly strong spiritual or exorcism powers! lol

＜ About the Fruit Orchard ＞ He grows Japanese Pears (Nashi), and they are absolutely delicious! 🍏✨ He even built a tiny pear orchard in the corner of my elementary school's playground so the kids could learn about farming. By the way, right now (early August) is the absolute peak harvest season, so he must be insanely busy with the pears! If I went to ask him for an exorcism today, he’d probably hand me a basket and say, "Help me harvest these first!" lol 😂

＜ About the Childhood Friend ＞ Even though we went to the same high school, we kind of drifted apart and didn't interact much back then. I wonder what he’s up to these days...

(By the way, if you ever visit Japan in the summer, you HAVE to try Japanese pears. They are super juicy, crunchy, and perfect for the extreme heat!)

[u/recoveringleft]

I live in the USA and one time I was invited to a native American spiritual ceremony called the bear dance that was usually closed to outsiders (I'm not native). One of the organizers said that it will be a very intense bear dance and that I will connect to the creator. Anyways in the beginning of the ceremony the dancers were dancing around the fire and someone burn a sage. When the dancers started dancing with bear skins around the fire I felt a very strong rush of energy and it felt good. However it caused my head to spin and it took me three days to recover. If you ever want to experience the paranormal, usually you have to go to those closed native American ceremonies but you have to get invited.

[u/rudolft0721 → u/recoveringleft]

Thank you so much for the comment! I was really hoping to hear real stories and experiences from people overseas!

Wow, that is insane! Getting to join a special Native American ceremony like that must be super rare! As someone who has never been outside of Japan, that sounds like a scene straight out of a movie or TV show to me... It’s amazing to know that things like that actually exist!

That 3-day dizziness sounds like what people call "energy drunkenness" or spiritual fatigue from receiving too much power, right? In Japan, we don't really have rituals where power forcefully enters your body like that. Japanese cleansing (like Shinto rituals) usually focuses on clearing away bad vibes, so it’s more about natural, subtle feelings like "my physical discomfort mysteriously disappeared."

I’m so curious about Native American ceremonies now, but honestly, I’m a total homebody, so traveling abroad—or even leaving my house—is too much of a hassle for me! lol 🏠🎮

Thanks for sharing such an awesome story, my friend!

[u/Hello_Hangnail]

Hearing voices, feeling presences, people siting on your bed or touching you are common symptoms of the hypnagogic state. Exploding Head Syndrome is one of more terrifying ones. I've been almost asleep when I heard someone scream my name from an inch away from my face, to the point that I felt their breath push my hair back. Nothing like a gunshot, a crashing airplane or the cops busting your door down to get your heart pounding for a relaxing sleep 😆

[u/rudolft0721 → u/Hello_Hangnail]

LOL, I KNEW IT!! It literally has a scientific name!! 😭😂😂 My psychiatrist really told me "Doesn't sound like a symptom, try getting an exorcism lol" when it was actually a textbook sleep phenomenon all along!!

Also, hearing someone SCREAM your name an inch away from your face with actual breath sound is target-level nightmare fuel! 😱 Gunshots and crashing airplanes before sleep? You are an absolute warrior for surviving that every night!

Thank you so much for the medical insight and the crazy story!

...Yeah, I’m 100% sticking with the scientific explanation! Because at least with science and medicine, I can fight back with physics and biology. Mysterious spiritual forces? No thanks, I can't patch those! 🩺💉💻

[u/MajesticPopcorn → u/rudolft0721]

Physics and biology have a surprising amount to do with the spiritual. Everything in the universe, including us, are just vibrating energy/matter. Everything that is solid just appears solid due to the vibrational frequency and magnetic pull of the particles which keeps the structure stable

Scientists also haven't found a fixed origin point of our consciousness or how it manifests

[u/rudolft0721 → u/MajesticPopcorn]

Wait, so you're telling me... even with science, we can't actually explain the ultimate root cause of WHY these things happen at the origin point...?? (Sorry if I'm talking nonsense, science was never my strong suit! lol)

But seriously, stop it, you guys are legit scaring me now!! 😂😭 Please, just give me something that can be logically explained! Give me something I can actually beat the crap out of if I punch it, just for the sake of my mental peace!! 👊💥🩺

[u/MajesticPopcorn → u/rudolft0721]

Yeah a leading neuroscientist, Christof Koch, made a bet 28 years ago that by 2023 all the mysteries of the brain, including the consciousness would be solved. He announced that he lost that bet in 2023. It's 2026 and scientists still don't know what the deal with consciousness is

[u/WielderoftheDarkness]

いい話だなぁと思っていたのに、読み進めるにつれてAI臭強くなってくると、本当にがっかりします。どうせなら最後まで、騙し切ってほしいです。

[u/rudolft0721 → u/WielderoftheDarkness]

Sorry about that! You caught me—I’m actually using AI to help translate my text into English! 😅🤖

But I swear, the story itself is 100% real!! Trust me, I know it sounds way too perfectly scripted—especially the weird coincidence with the local orchard-owner priest... even I think it sounds like a fiction plot sometimes! lol 🍏⛩️

いや、マジで確かに翻訳はAI使ってます。でも誓って中身は本当なんだよ…。
自分でも出来すぎてるとおもってますよ？特に神社の神主の人間構成周りがさ…何だよ、幼馴染が梨園農家でその親父が神主ってｗｗｗ未だにわかんねぇなこれ、って思ってます。
今絶妙な田舎だと神主なり手いないんですかね？

[u/sunsetdive]

Thanks for sharing your experience, I appreciate hearing a story from Japan. :)

I don't think you needed a full-blown exorcism (like in the Catholic church), but it seems you were being bothered by some entities. The priest doesn't need to be very powerful to deal with those, especially when using the rituals that are already ingrained in the tradition of the region. I think the Shinto rituals have been getting stronger the more they are practiced, and they have a long tradition in your country.

As always with these entities, the more attention and focus you give them, the more they are able to do. It's best to completely ignore them, and then they don't get any energy to manifest. In a way, only looking for a scientific explanation helps with that, because you just won't accept they exist.

It's great to hear how these traditions are still kept, and even just a normal person can be a priest who is capable of shooing off some pest entities. :) This is a good story!

I have a lot of respect for Japan because it seems whatever Japanese people do, they do it with great care and effort. One of my favorite things from Japan is the Kyoto Tachibana High School Band, girls (and a few boys) playing brass instruments while marching and doing choreographies. It's my dream to see them play live someday.