The number of people seeking exorcisms for demonic possession is rising, and priests are feeling the demand for their help.

While medical science remains skeptical, there are many leading experts speaking out about the increased need. Dr. Richard Gallagher, a Princeton and Yale educated psychiatrist, believes demonic possession is indeed very real and claims that the majority of Americans agree with him.

He has evaluated cases referred to him by a range of religious leaders including priests, rabbis, and Christian ministers. Dr. Gallagher assesses of cases of possible possession and judges whether a person is mentally ill or possessed. For the past 25 years, he has helped clergy distinguish between mental illness and what he calls “the real thing.”

“There is very strict criteria for determining the person’s problem. I am not just intuiting. I’m dealing with it from a very scientific point of view,” he told the Telegraph.

Dr. Gallagher isn’t the only one who believes this, however many leaders are scared to speak out. One leading psychologist and professor at Columbia University has said he believes in possession and that many other mental health professionals agree with him but are ‘hesitant to speak out’ in fear of getting backlash. In the US, the number of priest exorcists has increased from twelve to fifty over the past decade.

“There are many other psychiatrists and mental health care professionals who do what I do – perhaps not to the scope that I do – who seem hesitant to speak out,” Dr. Gallagher explained. “That’s what gives my work some singularity. That I have had so much experience and that I am willing to speak out. I feel an obligation to speak out. I think that I should.”

In April, at a Vatican training course for exorcist priests, participants were told that demand for exorcism is booming as a result of a decline in Christian faith and the internet providing easy access to black magic, the occult and Satanism.

Last year in another meeting, the Pope states that church leaders “should not hesitate” to refer penitents who are suffering from “genuine spiritual disturbances” to exorcists. Describing the Rite of Exorcism as a “delicate and necessary ministry”, the Pope admonished that exorcist priests must be selected with “great care and great prudence.”