Things to worry about during your next trip to Australia: indecipherable Aussie slang, man-eating sharks, and demonic possession. WTF?

The Catholic Church has revealed how growing interest in satanism and the occult has led to a rise in exorcisms across Queensland.One priest, who asked not to be named for fear of "reprisals", said he was carrying out at least one exorcism a fortnight.

More requests for exorcisms came from the Gold Coast than anywhere else.

An exorcism involves holy water, sacrament and Bible reading and can go on for many hours, the priest said. Linda Blair made the subject famous in the 1973 film, The Exorcist.

"Being possessed by a demon is terrifying in one's mental and emotional life," he said. "Some of these manifestations are extremely powerful, causing people to be plagued by disturbances. They hear voices and see hideous creatures in their sleep.

Do you know what else is terrifying? Being a superstitious anti-science Aussie bedwetter.

The idea that there are still people in the world who believe that hearing voices is caused by demonic possession rather then possible schizophrenia or psychotic depression is absolutely mind numbing!

There are readily available medications which can cure or suppress this problem and very useful therapies that can help the afflicted person deal with it.

Going to a priest for this is like going to a chiropractor for a toothache.

As long as there are superstitious people in the world there will be priests, witchdoctors, and mediums willing to take advantage of them.